hopelyscope

our hope lies within the hands of God

[sweet-scentedspice]

“I abandon, every distraction My attention is set on You My devotion, Jesus my portion My affection is set on You”

Sometimes we have to defy our emotions when worshiping the Lord. After all, worship is to bless the Lord. Let us choose to raise our hallelujahs in the middle of our storms! Let us command our souls to bless the Lord at all times.

[ruthwordss]

Enduring sycamore-fig tree

As we seek Jesus daily, to know Him and to be more like Him, it will not be an easy road for us. We bear our daily cross as we follow Christ and there will be obstacles and struggles that will try to stop us from seeking Jesus.

In the life of Zacchaeus, it was his height and the crowd that blocked him from seeing Jesus as the Lord was passing through Jericho. But his desire to seek Jesus made him climb up a sycamore-fig tree, a tree known for having so much thorns. (Luke 19:1-10)

For us, it could be our own selves that may hinder us from seeking God. It could be that we think we are too broken to come to Jesus, too sinful, too dirty and unworty. But ironically, that is the very reason why we should seek Jesus—because we are broken and we need a Savior. And if we seek and wholeheartedly ask the Lord, He is gracious and will forgive us from our sins.

The height of Zacchaeus did not stop him from seeking Jesus. Let not our weaknesses be the obstacle in seeking the kingdom of God.

Or it could be the crowd. The enemy will try to pull a scheme such as persecution from people, or the invitation to conform with the world to stop us.

The story of Zacchaeus did not end after passing through the crowd and spotting the sycamore-fig tree where he climbed up to see Jesus because the tree itself had thorns— representing the trials and problems we may encounter in life.

Seeking Jesus is not a one-day activity but an everyday decision and a life-long journey.

And throughout this lifetime, we will encounter many thorns. Those will cause us pain and sometimes even make us bleed. Seeking and following Christ will not be easy.

But we must endure the sycamore-fig tree for the sight of Jesus after that is worth every wound and pain.

[sweet-scentedspice]

You need to undergo pruning in order to grow!

Pain that wounds your heart, anxiety that bothers you, sickness that causes you much, mistake that keeps on haunting you, failure that ridicules you... welcome to your pruning process!

But be still and trust God. One day you'll grow and bloom to where God has planted you to be!

[sweet-scentedspice]

Grief, How Do You Look Like?

My friends usually do some kind of a prank – whenever I forget about my phone or something valuable, my friends would take that opportunity and hide it for a long time, as if they’re innocents and knew nothing about it. It sounds fun, not until it isn’t a trick anymore.

One lunch time when we had just finished our meals, I was looking for my violet bag that I placed near the four-angled furniture of our room. At first, I thought, my friends are doing some pranks again of hiding my bag yet minutes have passed and I knew they were serious.

“Hindi talaga namin tinago iyong bag mo. Promise!”

Have you ever lost something important in your life?

We have different reactions or emotions when dealing with grief or loss. Mort often, a person who experiences grief tends to be sad, depressed, and angry but what's worst is “Guilt.” Though losing a bag is far different from losing someone and experiencing grief, there I had examined myself within certain situations like losing - without hesitation, I immediately pointed my finger to my friends, which people often do when they’re under unwanted situations like grieving. We blame. We blame ourselves, others or things that caused us hardship, sickness or anything that wounded us.

That time, when I lost my bag, it took several minutes to find my bag. But the first thing I did was blaming. Then later it turned out that it was my fault - I forgot that the bag I brought was not the violet one but my black bag. Silly yet was life-changing.

I’m not condemning someone who experiences grief; it is natural. Perhaps, grief looks like denial - acting as if you've lost nothing; you're in denial of the truth.

Grief, just like other emotions, is a natural emotional stimulus that arises when there is a loss. In fact, everyone, including me, is vulnerable to it. What I am trying to point out is that staying longer in this zone would not be beneficial - this might lead us to more blaming, guilt-feeling or depressing feelings.

Every time I’m discouraged my mentor would always say, “Okay lang na magpark ka sa discouragement na ‘yan, it is part of the process. Huwag ka lang magtatagal diyan.” I think this analogy also applies when experiencing grief. We can stay in that zone for a while but we must not linger on it.

I know that it takes time to fully heal from an emotional wound. Just like what the wisest king said,

“There is a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing”

No matter how grief looks like, let’s be reminded that we must not be stacked in the grieving zone. Though it may take hours, days or even years let us engrave in our hearts that we have a God that holds everything in His hands - this includes our emotional healing.

[sweet-scentedspice]

NO LONGER BLIND

Have you ever asked "is there hope?" I did. I always do.

They say, "at the end of a tunnel there would always be a light" thus making me question my existence, my life - i always feel like my life's a big question, a never ending journey inside a tunnel, too dark, too silent, too lonely, worst: too hopeless.

Once, there was a person in the bible who could definitely claim a hundred-percent credibility of having a never-ending-journey-in-a-tunnel life. His life was literally dark for not having a sense of sight. He is Bartimaeus, a blind man from the city of Jericho. Yet Bart’s dark-filled life had its grandest shift when he had an encounter with Jesus. [See Mark 10:46-52]

Often times, Bart's life reflects how I lived my life - blinded. Unloved, unworthy, hopeless, these deceptions blinded my eyes to see who I really was. I was living my life in a chamber of lies, making me the person who I wasn't. What's ironic? I was born Christian. I am a pastor's kid and yet I cloaked myself in worldly perspective.

Good news, just like the life of Bartimaues, my life did not have its period on chains or being blinded by deceptions! How to find hope?

Cry out to Jesus 

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! [Mark 10:47] 

Churchy as it may sound, but it’s the only thing that could save us from the riots in our heads. Yes! the only answer is Jesus Christ. May it be financial, emotional, mental or physical struggles we can always cry out to Him just like what Bart cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Cry louder to Jesus

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me! [Mark 10:48]

There will be times that even after crying out to Jesus, deception’s noise would be a little louder. Sometimes it’s in a form of discouragements, disappointments, failures, pains, sicknesses but whatever noise the world may surround us let our cries to Jesus be louder - it’s not the time to give up rather the time make our cries audacious!

Cling to Jesus

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. [Mark 10:50]

We all have our own cloaks - something that’s hindering us to grasp hope. Perhaps, it’s a material thing that keeps us busy with the world, a relationship that hinders us to be the person God wants us to be. There is a cloak that God wants us to throw but one thing is for sure when we throw that cloak off and cling to Jesus, we’ll find hope, healing, joy, freedom, love, acceptance and every good thing we’ve been looking for.

It’s not as easy as one, two, three; it takes time, sacrifice, discipline, self-denial and above all the help of the Holy Spirit to be fully free yet in the end, it will be worth it to be able to see again that life with Christ is so beautiful.