Hope

I'm entering the card below in the weekly card challenge at Word Art Wednesday.

The suggested Bible verse for the challenge (which ends at midnight on Tuesday) is Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (NKJV)

Here is the card that I'm entering.......

Supplies used:
Stampin Up Sizzix 'Stripes' embossing folder
SU striped grosgrain ribbon (retired)
Graphic 45 Papers (flower/bulb image) Botanicabella Collecton (I *LOVE* Graphic 45)
SU large tag paper punch
SU extra large tag paper punch
The Paper Studio rainbow crackle round gemstones

This is my second week of entering the card challenge at Word Art Wednesday. I am enjoying the challenges and trying to incorporate a mini-devotion using the challenge Bible verse when I post my blog.

As I read the challenge verse this week, the word that jumped out at me was 'hope'. Usually when we use the word 'hope', it is used in a way to convey our wish that something might happen....as in, "I 'hope' it rains."

In reading through the entire chapter 29 of Jeremiah, we are reminded that Israel has been taken captive by Babylon. They had turned their backs on God. Jeremiah 29 is a letter written to the captives by Jeremiah. The words of the letter are not Jeremiah's words but those revealed to Jeremiah by God. Verse 11 speaks of a future and a hope for Israel. This 'hope' is NOT a "wishful" hope (maybe they will get out of captivity) but a certainty, a done deal (after 70 years God delivered them from captivity).

Jeremiah chapter 29 is a great picture of the grace of God. Grace that God even now continues to show to sinful man as we are delivered from the captivity of sin. Jeremiah 29:13 says, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."  It is only through the grace of God that our hearts are changed so that we want to seek him.

In a world of hopelessness we can have hope.  Our 'hope' is Christ.  Again, this 'hope' is not something wishful but something absolutely certain because of the finished work that Christ accomplished on the cross. 

My hope is built on nothing less,

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid Rock, I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

(words by Edward Mote)