Skip to main content

Hope Chest

 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (II Peter 1:3)

This weekend is a hunker-down weekend for many of us. There’s a big winter storm coming through, and while that may not be as nasty an event where I am, it’s a chance for me to practice my emergency preparedness. Some of it is silly stuff, like getting the laundry done on Friday instead of Saturday so I don’t freeze dry my clothes on the line. Other stuff is more vital, like watering and covering my plants to try to protect them from frost and freeze. I’m figuring it out – I made extra room in my shed for them and put my lawn mower in a position to support covers for other plants.

Another thing that comes to mind is what I said the other day about a Battle Bible. Today’s verses are a strong candidate. Granted, God’s ideas about our needs are different from ours, but when things get crazy… remember the song about sometimes He calms the storm, sometimes He calms His child? These are “calm His child” verses. They are verses that strengthen hope. There are other verses that strengthen courage, faith, or something else, but hope comes first. There’s no sense in having faith if you have nothing in which to have faith and no reason to have it.

It used to be that teen girls collected things that might be useful in the future. Relatives gave pieces of dish sets as gifts. The girls put their gifts into a trunk that was known as the "hope chest." It's a good name for a category of Battle Bible verses. What other verse or passages would you put into the hope chest? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more