{"id":23174,"date":"2014-12-05T00:20:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T05:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=23174"},"modified":"2014-12-05T00:55:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T05:55:59","slug":"23174","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/05\/23174\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week…HOPE (Advent, week one)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SHhopeadvent\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, here on the Seeking Him<\/strong> <\/em>devotional blog, Ann, Ahmee, Cynda, and Tina have written such wonderful devotionals encouraging us to hold onto the hope<\/strong> <\/span>that comes through our Lord, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the week, in Advent Week One…Hope<\/span>,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>Tina<\/span> shared a wonderful resource that outlined some ideas about Advent and specifically about the symbolism and Scriptural background of lighting the candles on an Advent wreath. \u00a0She also wrote,<\/p>\n

“The first week of the Advent season is to acknowledge hope<\/strong><\/span>. Hope<\/strong> <\/span>is where we realize that God will always fulfill His promises. It does not mean we will not see troubles, but we will see God\u2019s best, as long as we seek His Will first. As we celebrate this Christmas season, let\u2019s just forget the political correctness\u2026let us worship and proclaim our Savior\u2019s birth as never before!”<\/p>\n

~ \u00a0 \u2665<\/span> \u00a0 ~<\/h3>\n

In Living Hope<\/em><\/strong>, Cynda<\/span> shared this great perspective.<\/p>\n

“Look at it this way:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Without Christ\u2026there is no Christmas.<\/li>\n
  • Without that miraculous birth\u2026there is no crucifixion or resurrection.<\/li>\n
  • Without Christ\u2019s resurrection\u2026there would be no hope<\/strong><\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Christ alone is our eternal hope<\/span>, our living hope<\/span><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

    ~ \u00a0 \u2665<\/span> \u00a0 ~<\/h3>\n

    In False Hope<\/em><\/strong>, Ahmee<\/span> helped us to see what TRUE hope is…and<\/em> what FALSE hope is.<\/p>\n

    “Hope<\/strong><\/span> is a good thing. Hope<\/span> means \u2018to trust in, wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future\u2018. I\u2019ve also heard it said that hope<\/span> is a confident expectation of good.<\/p>\n

    False hope is a powerful tool, as well. I would say that false hope is hope<\/span> in something that either is not real, distorted, (but most clearly) not grounded in God Almighty. False hope is putting your trust in human beings and believing that they have the ability to do what only God can do.”<\/p>\n

    ~ \u00a0 \u2665<\/span> \u00a0 ~<\/h3>\n

    In Hope in the Lord<\/strong><\/em>, Ann<\/span>\u00a0reminded us what God has promised in Isaiah 40:31\u2014<\/p>\n

    “Those who hope<\/strong><\/span> in the Lord have His promise of…<\/p>\n

      \n
    • strength to revive them in the midst of exhaustion and weakness and suffering and trial<\/li>\n
    • the ability to rise above their difficulties like an eagle that soars into the sky<\/li>\n
    • the ability to run spiritually without tiring<\/li>\n
    • being able to walk steadily forward without fainting at God\u2019s delays”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      ~ \u00a0 \u2665<\/span> \u00a0 ~<\/h3>\n

      Dear Lord, we rest on the promises You have made knowing You are a faithful God. \u00a0 Thank You for Your promise of a Savior, a Redeemer and the birth of Your Son that fulfilled that promise. \u00a0Thank You for Your promise, Lord, that You will return and Your will gather Your church and You will bring us to our eternal home. \u00a0As we continue through this season of Advent…focusing on all that the birth of Immanuel means…may our hope be sure and steadfast. \u00a0We love You and adore You…and pray in Jesus’ name. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This week, here on the Seeking Him devotional blog, Ann, Ahmee, Cynda, and Tina have written such wonderful devotionals encouraging us to hold onto the hope that comes through our Lord, Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the week, in Advent Week One…Hope,\u00a0Tina shared a wonderful resource that outlined some ideas about Advent and specifically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":23087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[4652,4651,7927,235,3367,1287,425,518,7899,3174],"class_list":["post-23174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1st-week-of-advent","tag-advent","tag-ann-ahmee-cynda-tina","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hope","tag-jesus-is-our-hope","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/SHhopeadvent.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-23174","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23174"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23202,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23174\/revisions\/23202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}