Guest post

I would like to introduce to you an amazing friend of mine! She's been such an encouragement and inspiration to me over the years and I think she will be to you guys too today! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, I’m Hope. I’m 15, I’m loved and beautifully forgiven by my best friend, God, and I get to be close friends with one of the sweetest girls on earth, yep you guessed it, your blogger friend Brittney. I’m so glad she asked me to do a guest post on here. I thought I would just share a few things that have been on my mind lately. Knowing me..well, this might just get a little lengthy, I tend to get carried away when I start talking about my spiritual life, always so much to learn.

Recently, I flipped through my bible and came across Lamentations. I had never actually read it and I didn't really know what it was about. I mean all I knew is that It was some sad book in the middle of the bible that's really hard to find.

But I read it. Starting at chapter one..all the way through. It really wasn't as confusing as I thought it was, I actually got carried away and lost in the “story” of what was happening to Israel.

Basically, the writer gives all these comparisons to what Israel was like, how she was “feeling” you could say. In detail it described the hopeless state of the country and the pain and hurt it was going through. Even though this was describing a country, I could relate so well. In verse 17 and 18 it says “And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord”

Often life can become crazy. And it seems like nothing is peaceful, nothing is the way it used to be, everything is a huge wreck and you feel so weak and tired of it all.

I honestly don't know hardly any of you who are reading this. I don't know where you are in life. What type of trials you're going through. What kind of pain you're dealing with right now. But never forget that God is using what you are going through to bring something good about in your life. And i’m not just sitting here telling you this in ignorance of how it feels to go through something hard. It’s not easy now, but as you go through this hard time, remember that God is doing something amazing. God is doing something beautiful in your life, whether you can see it right now or not.

“When you feel like everything is falling apart, God is usually putting it back together”

Not only is God at work in your life, he is there for you in the good times and the bad. He is constant. Lamentations 3 draws attention to this in such an impacting way:

   But this I call to mind,  and therefore I have hope:

   This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's

mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my

portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a

man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is

good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and

keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth

in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that

smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.For the Lord will not cast off for

ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to

the multitude of his mercies.

Okay, if you just scanned over those verses not really paying attention to what you read, why do you go back right now and reread it..and this time really soak it all in.

These verses are amazing. Never forget that God is a loving and caring God who is never going to let you go. He will help through your worst day and biggest trial.

When I read these I was having one of those “every hard circumstance floods your mind all at once” kind of day..it just made me stop and think, when I start to feel overwhelmed by these kind of days, I can recall the fact that God is faithful and his mercies never fail, therefore I can have hope. I can have peace(like the feeling when you're walking along the ocean as the sun sets, the wind blowing in your face, wading in the water..with none of life's worries in your mind), and trust God.

“Trusting God doesn't mean we never have questions, doubts, or fears. We can’t shut down our normal human reactions to harsh circumstances. But trusting God means that in spite of our questions, doubts, and fears, we continue to count on two facts: God is always in control, and God always cares.”

Through the chaos, spend time with God  “walking on the beach” so to speak. God wants to do amazing things in you through every circumstance you face. So why don’t you just stop trying to bear the hurt alone, and ask God to change you, grow you, and lead you on an amazing journey of awesome faith.