Waiting Hopeful and Expectant!

God is a great big GOD! He knows my every need, care and worry. That is why I am suppose to place things in His hands and not fret. He is in control and will take care of it and show me how to work through the situations. Ahhh but that is so not easy to do! Lord I do trust you for the future! The last few months have been very difficult. So many things have taken place some not so great things and some fantastic things! I am so happy that I can walk with out my cane or crutches! It is so freeing to be able to just go and not worry about falling again!
But the not so great things have just gotten worse. I can't praise You enough for what you have done for our church and how You seem to show up each service! Thank you for that Lord! There are changes taken place I can see them, feel them and expect more! But other personal situations have just grown worse and worse. I want freedom Lord to worship an adore you with all the yuck weighing on my mind all the time. It is only when I am singing praises and worshiping you do I feel free! There are time just struggle to even hum a tune and then there times like the last few days I can't seem to stop worshiping you. I know its because when I worship you the Holy Spirit comes in like a flood and I begin to fill your presence like never before! Thank you Lord for showing up when I need you!
Today as I was worshiping I felt drawn to Lamentations. To "lament" is to feel intense sorrow, sadness, or grief, even to cry or to wail. Lamentations focuses on suffering, loss and hopelessness. The reality of pain, grief and tragedy is shown here to be jut as real for that time as it is for our time. I honestly thought as I turned to Lamentations, "Lord I need to be uplifted, encouraged today, not brought down again." But when I opened the book of Lamentations I actually turned to chapter 3 verses 19-26:

"O Lord, remember earnestly my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and he gall. My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me. But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His tender compassion's fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him ad wait expectantly for Him. The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully an expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him, inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word. It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation, the safety and ease of the Lord.

This is actually very encouraging! Yes we have problems, who doesn't! I mean hello all you have to do is turn on the tv and see how bad the economy is and how its affecting not only our country but the world. It is terrible it is. I have friends that are dealing with major illnesses, my Uncle Bob is suffering from lung cancer that as spread to his liver and brain! I have friends that are struggling to make ends meet like us, family members that are or have lost their home do to no work. A dear friend that walked into the hospital and because of a doctor who thought he could do something and not heed a warning buzzer, has lost all feeling and may never walk out the same...if she gets to walk out! SO yes everyone deals with different issues, struggles, storms in their lives. Compared to some ours are noting to even link at for our family we are struggling. But despite these things we are encouraged to put those things aside and start looking at what we do have! Start looking at the positive!

Is that always easy to do? Not at all! But verse 25 is a promise from the Lord! Read it again:

"The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him, inquire of and from Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word."

Does that not excite you! THE LORD IS GOOD TO THOSE THAT WAIT HOPEFULLY AND EXPECTANTLY! The key is And. We are to wait hopefully and expectantly. Apparently its not good enough to just be hopeful we have to be expectant too! When we do both of these things, God promises to be good to us! Does that me we get out of the storm quickly? NO! Does that mean we get what we want? NO! It means that God is going to make sure we are taken care of and He promises to "complete that which He has started in us."

If you are like me and struggling today to see the positive, hold fast to this scripture. and know no matter what your circumstances say God says something different. Stand hopeful and expectant, waiting on God and He will do that which is good for you! It may not be what you are wanting but what ever and however He turns things around it will be for your benefit and His glory!