this is Hope

Day 8 of

I became a Christian when I was four years old.  Occasionally, deep in the recesses of my brain, I can conjure up some random memories from that early in my life, but that milestone has never been one of them.  However, I remember being told the story, so unless I made up the time my mother shared it with me it went something like this.  My older brother was talking to our childhood pastor about having asked Jesus into his heart.  John D. (our sweet and sassy little pastor) was asking David questions about what he thought, what he said, what did he think would happen now, and so on.  Apparently my little blonde (also sweet and sassy) self was listening intently and said something that pricked the ears of John D.  After finishing his chat with my brother he began to ask me the same kind of questions, and I responded with whatever it is I responded with and John D. looked at my mom and said "she's ready". 

This is still all I remember from that story, and around 9 years old I must have remembered even less, because I sat at VBS at my friend Carrie Beth's church listening to the same spiel they give every year and my heart was in doubt.  I didn't think my parents were lying to me when they said I was saved, but I didn't remember it happening, and my little heart just wanted to remember it happening.  I remember wanting to look back to say "yes I know when I became His".  I remember feeling a little tug in my heart assuring me it was ok to step up, and I remember feeling fear in my heart because the friend I was with had thought I was already "good."  The tug won over and I stepped up, prayed with some well meaning lady at the front, filled out my little card, and handed it to a pastor I haven't seen since, standing right behind my friend Katie who I didn't even know had also walked up until that moment.  

The moment I became a child of God, through the blood of Christ, I stepped into a life of inheritance.  I entered a life of Hope.  Now I can look back at that moment and remember where the journey started, but until my life on Earth is done, the race will continue to be run.  From that moment, almost 24 years have passed, and countless mistakes, missteps and downright stupidity have occurred as I've walked as a sinful person through this life. But knowledge, wisdom, and forgiveness have overwhelmed my flesh, because while I am sinful, I am covered in Christ's blood, and His Spirit is forever at work within me and will forever be.  This is Hope.

Hope is not a maybe. It is not a fleeting wish.  HOPE is a promise given to us by our Creator and Heavenly Father.  Hope is the excited anticipation of the future, and certain blessing of God's Gracelife guaranteed because of what our Savior did when He sacrificed himself for us.  Hope entered the inner place behind the curtain, and became a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul. (Heb 6:19) 

So if you belong to Him, whether as a child who prayed at VBS, a drug addict who gave over her life on the street, or a CEO who finally gave up control as he gazed over the city skyline, you walked into a life of hope, and you have full assurance that Hope is not going anywhere.