Hope For Today "Acceptance"

When we are dealing with stress the slogan ‘this too shall pass’ is a helpful principle to remember.  God’s unfailing love surrounds and upholds us in every situation, and His strength is sufficient for all our needs.

Our self-esteem is based on how we evaluate and see ourselves.  Some people see little value in themselves while others rate themselves highly. The truth is, God made all of us. We are His creation and God has put high value on each person regardless of their status in life. 

Even though we may know about these stages and even be able to identify where we are today, it still remains difficult for us to deal with the grief and loss we are experiencing.  Thank God He is with us through every stage of life and He understands our grief.  He has experienced it all Himself.

So many challenges with money not only in our own lives but around the world with the economies of so many countries.  Everyone wants more money thinking it will solve more problems but the Bible clearly teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil we know.

What is something you procrastinate about doing? Most experts in dealing with procrastination would tell us that by taking things one day at a time, one step at a time, even tasks that seem overwhelming become possible. Character building and developing our relationship with God is something else that we can procrastinate about.  However, if we focus on what is before us and do the next right thing, we can trust God to empower us each step of the journey.

An important character strength to develop is tolerance – being patient, understanding, and accepting of something different.  We live in a world where there is a mixture of many cultures and behaviours, traditions and beliefs.  For many of us, part of the challenge to be tolerant is learning how to be around others who are at a different place in their life journey than we are in ours.

"Nevertheless" - what kind of word is what? We don't hear it so often now but it meant something very significant to folks in our parents and grandparents generation and has something wonderful to remind us about today.

The Bible tells us that love is patient.  How many of us would profess to be patient? Most of us find it easy to be impatient and the only thing that matters in those moments is not how we got there but will we choose to stay that way.

Shame is such a powerful emotion that plagues many human beings.  It can be the shame we feel for the ugly things we said and did or the shame we felt after someone harmed or abused us, God wants us to overcome all of it and live life to the full.

What are you afraid of today?  What kinds of things easily make us fearful?  What can we do so our emotions and behaviour choices are not controlled by our fears?  God keeps it simple for us.

We all experience hard times.  Disappointments come and we are brokenhearted.  Difficulties pile up and seem to crush us.  As followers of Jesus we are not exempt from these kinds of moments. But God - two beautiful words. But God is with us to comfort and support us and to show us a good way through the challenges.

The exact nature of our wrongs is rooted in the lie that our problems are caused by what is around us rather than what is within us.  It’s time that we admitted that to God, to ourselves, and to another human being.