God Is There

Don't panic. I'm with you.

 There's no need to fear for I'm your God.

I'll give you strength. I'll help you.

 I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. – Isaiah 41:10 (The Message)

When did you panic last? What was going on? Of what are you afraid? Where is God? What is God doing?

This came from the Christian Century on July 26, 2011:
When Fred Rogers received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy award in 1998, he asked the celebrity audience to take ten seconds of silence to think about people who had loved them into being and helped them become who they are.
Within seconds weeping and sobs could be heard throughout the audience. Then Rodgers said, “May God be with you,” and sat down. Eliot Daley, a Presbyterian minster who had worked with Rogers, says it is significant that Rogers didn’t say “God bless you.” Rogers knew that the people were already blessed by God. He wanted the people in the audience to be aware that God was with them.

Sometimes when things seem hard we forget the many blessings that have saturated our lives. However, even when the world seems more full of curses than blessings God is still with us. I know we need to be reminded of this from time to time, because I know I need to be reminded of this from time to time. When we walk in valleys so deep they can be called the valley of the shadow of death, God is still there. Even though God tells us not to panic, not to be afraid, and all the rest we will be. Today let us pray that we may be filled with faith. In that way when fear knocks on our doors we may open them and discover God is there.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Abounding In Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

What does it mean to be filled with all joy and peace in believing? Have you ever considered God “the God of hope”? Do you abound in hope? Have you met anyone who abounds in hope? How do they live?

This story was sent to me:
A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trip to school.
As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Following the roar of thunder, lightning, like a flaming sword would cut through the sky.
Full of concern, the mother quickly got in her car and drove along the route to her child's school.
As she did so, she saw her little girl walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up and smile. Another and another were to follow quickly, each with the little girl stopping, looking up and smiling.
Finally, the mother called over to her child and asked, "What are you doing?" The child answered, "Smiling, God just keeps taking pictures of me."

And maybe that is an image of abounding in hope, yes maybe that is being filled with joy and peace. Knowing that God cares about us so much that God would never abandon us, and looking at fear in the face and smiling. Smiling because God is with us then too, and we aren’t alone. An old English proverb says it best, “Fear knocked on the door and faith answered. No one was there.” Today let us pray that the God of hope may fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that not only we will not fear, but also that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s a good way to be.

With hope and joy,
Garrett