Hope

Mental unwellness

It’s a tide that makes life bleak

It’s a struggle 

The constant juggle 

Emotions like waves of the sea 

Anxiety, guilt, and grief

Low moods and high water

Life can feel like a teeter-totter

Where’s the balance? 

Where’s the peace? 

Sometimes tears are a release

But then it begins again 

Driving me round the bend 

When will it ever end? 

A tranquil pool would be nice

A little slice of the contented life

I’m not jaded, I’m still fighting this fight

I’m reaching, but can’t quite hold onto the light

Still I’m trying so hard to fly 

Though I stumble God is always by my side 

I’ll be ready when He holds back those tides

Elated as I reach new heights.

Tina W

June 04, 2021

---

He Is A God of Hope

God’s control over water is mentioned 5 times in the Old Testament. (Genesis 1:6-7; Exodus 14:21-22; Joshua 3:15-17; 2 Kings 2:7-8; 2 Kings 2:13-14)

It’s also mentioned at least three times in the New Testament: When Jesus walked on water. (Water doesn’t normally support a human body like that.) When Jesus stopped the wind and waves with a verbal command, and when He turned water into wine. (Matthew 14:22-33; Matthew 8:23-27; John 2:1-11)

Did I miss any?

These stories remind us that God is bigger than all of our problems and supplies what we need. He can control things beyond our own control and perform miracles beyond our imagination. When God performs a miracle He shows those who are witness to our trials that He is with us. That our God is alive among us. Jesus still lives today as He sits upon His throne in heaven.

No matter our circumstances, there is always hope that The Lord will either give us the strength to endure and persevere through our trials, or perform a miracle and hold back those tides. In the meantime we can rest assured that God is with us and will never leave us.

God Dries Up The Jordan

Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.”

Joshua instructed the priests, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant and step out before the people.” So they took it up and processed before the people.

God said to Joshua, “This very day I will begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel. They’ll see for themselves that I’m with you in the same way that I was with Moses. You will command the priests who are carrying the Chest of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the Jordan’s waters, stand there on the river bank.’”

Then Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “Attention! Listen to what God, your God, has to say. This is how you’ll know that God is alive among you—he will completely dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. Look at what’s before you: the Chest of the Covenant. Think of it—the Master of the entire earth is crossing the Jordan as you watch. Now take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of God, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan’s water, the flow of water will be stopped—the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap.”

And that’s what happened. The people left their tents to cross the Jordan, led by the priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant. When the priests got to the Jordan and their feet touched the water at the edge (the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest), the flow of water stopped. It piled up in a heap—a long way off—at Adam, which is near Zarethan. The river went dry all the way down to the Arabah Sea (the Salt Sea). And the people crossed, facing Jericho.

And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.

Joshua 3:5-17 (MSG)