Thursday Writing...4/4/19..."Our Hopes"

Good Morning,

The theme for today is human hopes both earthly and spiritual. We all have hopes; some come to fruition and some do not. This results in hearts filled either joy or sorrow. However, we can count on the fact that God hears our prayers and requests and they will be answered. Corinne wrote, "Our hopes should be ones that are not materialistic but hopes for the improvement  of the world for us and all others who live in it."

Life without ambitions, hopes, and goals has nothing to offer. Present your needs to God, and He will answer according to His wisdom.

Blessings
Corinne
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Thursday Devotional 

"Our Hopes" 

Written by 

Corinne Mustafa

We all go through our lives thinking about the things we hope to have as we go through life. Some of them are secular and some are spiritual. Our hopes may be answered positively and some are not. There are many guesses as to why our hopes sometimes are not realized. The one that speaks to my heart the most is a reason that proposes that God does not let our hopes and desires go unanswered. If we do not get what we pray for the proposed reasons are (1) God knows that it will not be good for us or (2) God has something more wonderful in mind for us.

Our hopes as we pass through the passages of our lives include having friends, getting good grades, finding the right spouse, having babies, health for the parents and their children. Life can often intervene which sets up road blocks to the perfect life of happiness. We know that expecting perfection is not really realistic. Sickness and death, divorce, are just a few of the things that come between us and having all our hopes realized.

On a spiritual note we hope to live life with goodness, caring. doing all the things that we were taught we should do as a healthy spiritual and and healthy corporal being. That is a great challenge to people no matter how much they try. We cannot ever be perfectly righteous on our own effort.

Scripture tells us...

Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; 

yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending Him

 if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in His kindness

 freely takes away our sins.

Romans 3:23-24
 (TLB)

For myself I "hope" that I can always be found to be acceptable even if I am flawed. Here is a prayer that might be useful for our prayer time to control the shortcomings that we fight on a minutely basis.

Prayer of Thomas Aquinas

Grant me, O Lord my
 God,a mind to know you,a heart to seek you,wisdom to find you,
conduct pleasing to you,faithful perseverance in waiting for you,and a hope of finally embracing you.Amen.

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"MY HOPE"

Sung by

Hillsong Worship

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Our hopes should be ones that are not materialistic

but hopes for the improvement  of the world for us 

and all others who live in it.

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Prayers are lifted up daily for you

 by the Devotional Writers and the Monthly Writing Staff

 of Women's Focus Ministries.

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Sandy Billingham, Karen Bennett, 

 Brother Thomas Ukwute, Jody Ward,  

Bre Miller, E Betty Espindola,  Lynda Kinnard

Amie Spruiell, Debbie Rodriguez, and Corinne Mustafa

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  Amie Spruiell, and Lisabeth Lipp