By Betsy Ore Glass

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. – Romans 15:13 ESV

What happened last year has passed. There were victories, losses, hardships and successes. Maybe even a lot of change, too. My husband and I personally went under a lot of change when we moved two weeks before Christmas. Change can introduce stress and chaos and I have firsthand knowledge of that!

Maybe you too are going through some things right now that are spilling over into this year. We have to have something stronger than we are to lean on during these times. God is the answer. Hope and trust in Him will get us through as we turn the page of the calendar.

What is hope and why should we want to live under it? The definition of hope is “the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” When we put our trust in God and turn over our hearts and surrender to Him, we can safely believe that we are in His Protection. Thereby we can have hope that His Way and Will in are present in our lives.

In the easy times, the slow times, the down times, that is when we can build up our reserves for the hard times by choosing to trust in Him. Because all too often when the hard times come, we need that hope to plug into. My toaster won’t work if it is not plugged in. Neither will my coffee maker. So it goes for our faith. If we are not plugged in to Him, there is nothing that flows between us in those great times of need. He loves our praise. When everything is going well, tell him how grateful you are. Build the daily relationship with Him. And when times of struggle come as they do for all of us, make sure you have stored up treasures in Heaven with your devotion to Him. That is where we can find our hope, which is in trusting in Him.

Betsy Ore Glass has long-standing ties to the Outer Banks. From Virginia Beach, her family bought a vacation cottage in the 60s and her love of the area began. Later in the 90s, Betsy and her husband bought a weekend cottage and introduced the area to their children. Then Betsy’s parents retired to KDH where the family gathered often. Reach her at betsyglass1@gmail.com. To learn more about her books, visit betsyoreglass.com.

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