Tuesday, October 13, 2015

31 Days of Hope - October 13


Do you have areas of your life that you want to do better in? I do. Several, in fact! As we become closer to God, He reveals areas of my life that need to be refined. This is not always comfortable! in fact, it can be downright painful. Realizing that you've been doing things that are not pleasing to God, is difficult. These things usually hurt you, too, so that's why God is revealing things.

May Your faithful love rest on us, Yahweh,
for we put our hope in You.
Psalms 33:22
As we work on these things, God is so faithful to love us. As we work on things we want to change, we have the HOPE that God is giving us the ability to be strong in changing these things. He equips us to do the things we want and need to do.

I have struggled with one issue in my life, for most of my life. I grew up not feeling that I was okay the way I was. My personality was questioned constantly and compared to others in the family that fit in better. I was always a child that loved to read and write and this wasn't understood well by others in my family. You start to doubt yourself and question if there is something wrong with you. Then this manifests itself into thinking that everyone is thinking these things about you! Oh, my - what a mess this is! 

I am working on not believing these things anymore. I am HOPEFUL that I will not project these feelings onto my friends and family when it's not at all what they are thinking! This is difficult when you've done it your whole life. I'm doing good, though! The key is to love others as you love yourself. To love others as Christ loved us. I've loved others, but I've been so careful not to get hurt, I haven't love them as fully as I should have. I don't open my heart too far because I don't want it to get stomped. However, in doing this, I keep the full love from others out, too! Pretty silly, but we always want to protect our hearts, don't we? 

I have HOPE that I can open up more, expect the best out of others instead of the worst, and to have the love from others that I long to have. In the process, I want to love others fully, too! Isn't it wonderful that God can equip us to do this? What a wonderful God who fills me with HOPE!

Blessings - Julie

3 comments:

  1. may all that come behind us, find us faithful

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  2. Julie, I too have a protected heart. It is hard for me to fully love.

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  3. I live this way too in anlot of ways. Words can be so hurtful and I have been there and I struggle to silence those hurtful ways of others and move on forward. The good thing about friends is you can pick them. Moving past past hurts is so liberating! Its amazing what God can do by providing us with good friends who strive to be like Him. God bless! Loving your posts!!

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