What is our Hope?

 Hello friends! It's been a long while since I've posted, but I thought I would jump over and share some blatantly honest thoughts with you all. 

I've been struggling with so many emotions over the last few months. Fear. Peace. Joy. Hope. There are so many things I want to do, yet the question of if I'll get to do them. There are so many things I want to be, yet I wonder if I'll ever measure up. 

I want to be a writer. I want to write stories that will change the world, that will shake a person to their core, and point them to my Savior. Yet there's the little niggle of fear in the back of my mind, the whisper that says, "You'll always be a fraud. You'll always have to put on a show."

I want to achieve Finals in the National Bible Bee Competition. Yet there's the surmounting pressure that says, "You'll never be regarded as a real semi-finalist or finalist. You're not as spiritual as the other semi-finalists. You're not at their level."

I want to be a wife and mother one day. Yet there's the lie that sings in my ear, "You aren't good enough."

Now, these would be reasons to give up right now if they were true. But one thing remains. 

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..."

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

There is hope in Christ my Savior. I don't want to achieve Finals, or publish novels, or be a mother to prove to the world that I am normal. I don't want to put on a show of fake rightness while falling apart inside. I want to show them Jesus, and because I'm so broken and flawed the Light can show more brilliantly through the broken pieces. 

"The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it."

I have the Light of Christ inside me, and the enemy wants nothing more than to put it out. He wants to attack me with lies and block out the Light of Truth, and believe me, I've been feeling those attacks lately. But if the clouds block the sun, that doesn't mean the sun isn't there. 

What is our hope in all things? Win or lose, rich or poor, life or death? Christ alone.

Christ alone. 

He's carried me this far, and He'll carry me through every trial until He calls me home.

I hope this has encouraged you!

Tally ho!

Rachael Anne