Hurting With Hope: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

We are to live in the present - not letting either the past or the future rob us of our now. The past is over with, the future is unknown. The present is the present. Believers in sweet Jesus have not been given a spirit of fear rather One of power, love, self-discipline and of a sound mind. Therefore, we are neither to be shackled by our fears nor gripped by our hopelessness, nor fearful of future events - robbing us of the joy of the now and the purpose of our life even if it is presently filled with a plethora of painful. God knows the intensity of the heat and He always has our best interest at heart in all that He allows. Always be looking for the beauty in the ash. We are to live with an eager expectancy and with hope that God will use this, even this, for our good and His glory – not looking back, out or in - rather up. And as Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 - “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 
Believers in Jesus carry around in our jars of clay the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen and equip us for everything God allows in our lives to do His will – His good, pleasing and perfect will. The Spirit of God is in every believer in Christ Jesus. It is a failure not to realize what our Lord has done for us and what He is still doing in and through and for us. We must remind ourselves of Whose we are – a child of the King – and Whom we serve – the God of all creation. He is far more than sufficient to meet our every need as we walk through the difficult and He will always prove faithful. We are to speak to ourselves to quit thinking of ourselves as ordinary people going forth in our own ordinary strength and power and wisdom even if we have attained to such heights as Sampson or Solomon in strength, wisdom and power. It is the Holy Spirit within every believer of Jesus Who gives us strength.
We all have times in our life journeys when we feel weak, inadequate, and frightened with the events of life we are facing. As God reminded Joshua, He reminds His children now as well that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We can trust Him with our lives and the lives of all we hold near and dear.