I Feel My Hope Comin'

 Dear Beloved,

This week someone close to me experienced some serious tragedy. It was bad. The reality of her grief and pain caused me grief and pain. First, I was in shock and trying to be as present as I could be with her. Then hours later, when we held a prayer call for her, the tears of grief hit me. When I got off the call, all I wanted to do was call someone and cry and process. So I did. (This is huge for me because my past self would've suppressed and isolated, praise God for emotional healing). 

                                

Beloved, please know that hope is not the absence of sadness. It is the pillar and foundation of endurance. To finish the race of life, one must have hope. To make it to heaven, one must have hope in Jesus Christ. I pray you both. I still have sadness today, but I have more hope, then I did yesterday. After I got off the phone with no else to call, though I wish I had others, I felt Holy Spirit say, "talk to me". I started singing a worship song and then another. Then I went to the Book of Psalms, the book that validates pain and emotion. 

I started off in Psalm 6, then to Psalm 42, then Psalm 145-150. By the end, I felt my hope comin. The circumstance hadn't changed, but I was reminded that God hadn't either. His works of old were good and so were the ones of TODAY. I once read a quote in the book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom that said "Heaven never panics". I was reminded of that yesterday. It wasn't to dismiss the horrific situation, but a reminder that God is still in control in the midst of what feels chaotic. 

If you're in the midst of tragedy as well, I pray you feel your feelings while drawing to Christ for hope. When everything is out of your control, drawing near to the one who has control gives you the hope needed to endure another day. Although these trials freaking suck and are massively painful, they do not last forever. In eternity pain will be a distant memory and every tear will be wiped away. If you've surrendered your life to Christ, this will be your future. If you haven't, know that the Lord has been pursuing you for a long time and He's using THIS HOPE LETTER to speak to you. No matter when you read this, HE IS CALLING YOU. I haven't written a Hope Letter in 2 years, but He strongly urged me to write this one. 

There is ONE God who created all the universe. He is the great I AM. His intention was for all his creation to be one with Him, in glory separate from pain and angst. He gave mankind full authority in the earth and free access to everything, except one thing: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But through man's (Adam's) sin of pride, greed, and lust, the ONE commandment  given (stay away from the tree) was broken and in that moment God's relationship was broken between mankind. You and me were born in sin. We know we've sinned. We've gone against what we've known to be right and that has caused a void in our hearts that can't be filled by relationships, money, power, or fame. ONLY God, the one true God who created us can fill it. It's impossible for us to be holy on our own, our lust for self and sin won't ever allow us to do right by heaven. With this, God decided to stand in for our weakness. He being perfect and sinless cannot be connected to sin, which we're covered in. But, The Father WANTS to reconnect with us. 

We're His creation, He doesn't want to spend eternity separated from us when we die. So, He made a way. In His divine love, He came down from heaven through His son Jesus Christ and took the punishment of sin that we deserved. Our sin deserves God's wrath and separation from Him, but Christ took the wrath and separation for us through the crucifixion. He died and was buried in the grave and 3 days later he rose again, proving his deity! The blood he shed on that cross was the price paid for salvation and forgiveness of sin. You don't have to carry the guilt and shame of your sin. You don't have to live with the void in your heart. God made a way for you to reconnect, receive forgiveness and have your slate wiped clean! This is the Gospel and good news of Christ. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ is God and he died and rose again for your sins, then recite the prayer below OUTLOUD and you will be saved!

Lord Jesus, I believe you died and rose again for my sins and I ask you for forgiveness. I repent of all sin and ask you to renew my mind and clean my heart. I give you full control of my life. Please show me how to walk in righteousness, in Jesus name I pray Amen.  

Praise the Lord my new brother/sister in Christ!! Now go and watch this video to learn what's next! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZ-m8C9hsA&list=PLmtSnLV8O89pDosLdVKT234erqFjJJNx-

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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The Battle Is The Lord's!

Dear Beloved, 

 I was speaking with a sister recently who's up against a big battle in this season. As we spoke, she said she could sense an familiar overwhelming feeling mixed with anxiety trying to overtake her when she thought of the battle, but then she said "I have to remember, the battle is Lord's." There are many times when I go through things in life and I forget that simple, yet profound truth. This fact comes from a variety of places in the Bible, but the greatest one in my mind is when David says it to Goliath. 

In 1 Samuel 17, David who's the smallest and youngest among the troops of Israel stands up against the Philistine giant, Goliath, who could eat David for breakfast. However, it wasn't David's faith in HIMSELF that made him believe he could defeat Goliath, but in God. We see this when he says in 1 Samuel 17:47 Everyone gathered shall see that the Lord doesn't save by sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. The battle before David wasn't favorable toward him at all. There were so many ways he could lose and be destroyed or be stricken by fear and give up. Those would be the possible outcomes if he kept his eyes on Goliath, but David chose to place his eyes on God and place the battle in HIS hands. 

 If you're tired and worn out, it's probably because you haven't been allowing God to fight for you. You're trying as hard as you can to fight this battle, but really anxiety, fear, worry, and discouragement are whipping your tail in the ring. God says THE BATTLE IS HIS. Stop trying to move God's hand this way or that way. Stop trying to find the loop hole or easy pass out of the battle. The spiritual Goliath is wearing you out and his minions, fear, worry, discouragement are stealing your hope. The song You Know My Name by Tasha Cobb really ministered to me today and the lyrics below really stuck out. I know what it's like to try to fight Goliath on your own, but it's time to give it to the real warrior, our Father in heaven. 

 No fire can burn me 

No battle can turn me

 No mountain can stop me 

'Cause You hold my hand 

And I'm walking in Your victory 

'Cause Your power is within me

 No giant can defeat me 

'Cause You hold my hand 

 May your hope be in Jesus Christ, 

 Anreka 

 Tell me how this Hope Letter helped you in the comments below! Are you struggling to maintain HOPE? Herpes To Hope Lockscreens will help you see daily reminders of God's hope and help you when those negative thoughts come! Get your Hope Lockscreen TODAY! Click Below! 

 

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Restoration of Hope

Dear Beloved,

Has your hope taken a hit? Maybe you don't feel completely hopeless, but you sense in your heart there are some areas where you're wondering: can God really do this? If so, you're not alone. The past month has been extremely hard for me. There was a lot of heaviness and sadness and it wasn't until last night that I realized part of my sadness was because my hope had taken a hit in a few areas. I still believe God to be God, but in my subconscious, I've been thinking can He really move over these things or are they just what they are? 

I found myself thinking about the generations of black slaves in America. If there was any group of people that knew about great trials and tribulations it was them. I said, "God, HOW did they hope? HOW did they keep going?" For the first generation of slaves, the end of slavery would be hundreds of years away, yet they still had a desire to marry and have children, and even smile once those children were born. How can a people still desire these things, when it seems like life would never get better? Everything was dark around them, yet they continued to bring life to: children, traditions, teachings, and so much more. 

A day or two after asking God this question, I came across a tweet by Jackie Hill Perry that said: 

"Negro spirituals are the perfect soundtrack for our times.

They, unlike the hymns written by white Christians, had lyrics born out

of deep suffering.To sing as they did was to put their pain into song while

reminding each other of a man named Jesus who would soon take them home."

There was God's answer to me: They worshiped. So, then I went to look up these spiritual songs, which I've only heard in passing. In my search, I found a song called Go Down Moses, where the lyrics speak to the children of Israel being enslaved in Egypt and Moses telling Pharaoh to let the people go. We see this account in the Bible. So, in singing this song, the black people that were enslaved, reflected on how God used Moses to free the children of Israel from their slavery. They found hope in what God did before and believed He could do it again. I found another song called Hold On, that speaks to holding onto the plow (a farming tool). This is a reference to a scripture in the Bible where Jesus tells us no one who holds the plow and keeps looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Essentially, looking back is representative of taking your hand off the plow. The plow represents the mission in life God has for us. The black Americans that were enslaved remembered to hold on and that God still had purpose for them and we see it in the generations they birthed, the traditions they passed down, the teachings of hope, and the wealth of songs rooted in God's word. 

Each week I write to you testifying about God's hope through His word, but it seems in the past month I was thinking maybe there was something else that helped these mighty people in history. I was blessed when I saw they found hope in the very thing that's been giving me hope since I got saved in 2012. After this, I went to the Bible in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, which says, But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Salvation means to save, even deeper God saves. My hope ought to be rooted in the fact that GOD SAVES. Not only can He save me from my sin (which is the greatest miracle of all), but He can save the other areas I was questioning from before. God Saves, period. 

This was refreshing to see that my hope comes from the basis of my salvation. If God can save me, He can save or redeem anything. Now that I'm reminded of that, I have to deal with the areas of hope in me that took a hit. Hope isn't something I can go to the store and buy, but it belongs to God and is a gift from God. With that, I need God to restore my hope in the areas it's taken a hit, that means prayer. So last night I started to do that, I named the areas God revealed to me where my hope weakened and I began praying for Him to restore. I encourage you to do the same. If your hope has taken a hit, pray for God to replace the hope that was lost. It doesn't mean you're evil or you've lost your faith. Sometimes in life we take a hit, or a couple of hits and God is there waiting for our prayer of restoration. The Lord is with you beloved and He can restore our hope. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

Tell me how this Hope Letter helped you in the comments below!

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God Hasn't Left You

 When the shock of life hits and it seems like darkness is flooding in all around, it can seem like God is no where in sight. Some people feel as if God doesn't care or that what they've done is so horrible that God has left them. I believed the latter when I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011. I had no truth to teach me or tell me otherwise. I believed God's love and attention came from being "good" and when I really, REALLY messed up then that was it, His presence in my life was cut off. That's kind of how people are. Everyone has a tolerance threshold and once that mark is passed, they say enough is enough and you're not worth my love any more. I took human behavior and applied it to God. That was my first wrong move. The Bible says in Numbers 23:19 God IS NOT A MAN, that should lie; he is NOT A HUMAN, that he should change his mind. I placed God into the box of how others have treated me and how I treated others. God makes it clear, He is not us or like us. He is God, higher and greater than any being we've encountered on this earth. His is ACTUAL goodness and because we know so much hurt, it's hard to believe actual goodness when we see it. Believe it or not, God hasn't left you.

Before contracting herpes I didn't live for God, but even though my life wasn't surrendered I still believed I could at least pray to Him when I needed Him most and believed He would hear me. There was some level of hope in believing I could at least talk to Him because He was there. However, after contracting herpes for the first time in my life I thought God left me. There was no way He wanted to be around me. That lie the enemy planted in my mind, left me in so much gloom. 

If this is where you are and what you're experiencing, I want to interrupt that lie right now! Long before you were born, God wrote words and promises to you in the Bible. As mentioned earlier, God is not like people, HE DOESN'T LIE, so we can trust that His words below are TRUE:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not for I AM WITH YOU, be not dismayed, for I am you God

Joshua 1:5 ...As I was with Moses, I WILL BE WITH YOU: I will not fail you, nor forsake you

John 14:18 I will NOT LEAVE you comfortless: I will come to you

Hebrews 13:5 ..For He (God) says I will NEVER LEAVE you, no forsake you

These are just a FEW scriptures that highlight God's promise to not leave us. His presence is not measured by what He does (or doesn't do), but rather by WHO HE IS. And John 1:1 says that God IS HIS WORD. So if His word says He's with you and won't leave you, then that's who He is. I encourage you to stop comparing God to humans and how quickly they are to desert you. God IS NOT human, He KEEPS HIS WORD. Cling to this truth. Anytime you feel overwhelmed with thoughts of God leaving you, reference the scriptures above. Speak God's truth! Remember God is not a feeling or bound to our circumstances, His character is His word. Life might be going left, but I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU says the Lord. You might not feel Him, but I AM WITH YOU says the Lord. Rest in God's truth beloved. Rest in God's truth.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS BELOW: Have you ever felt like God has left you? Which one of these scriptures resonate with you the most?

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Hope During World Crisis

As many of you are aware the world is facing a major health crisis, the coronavirus. Some of you may not have been impacted and some of you may whether you're battling the ailment or know someone who is. Wherever you fall in this, I come writing this letter hearing and feeling the world's cry for HOPE.

The greatest way I know to access hope is through PRAYER! Let's storm heaven together! Access the prayer BELOW! Whether you believe or not, reciting the words have POWER and the more of us that pray it, the more power it will have in releasing hope into the world. After you pray it, type AMEN in the comments of this Hope Letter!

Click Here To Pray!

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

Remember to type AMEN in the comments after you pray!

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One Reason It's Hard To Hope

As I sat down to write, I heard the Holy Spirit say: It's hard to hope without the Word. As I have mentioned before, the heart behind these letters is that you would ultimately place your hope in Jesus Christ, who is the only REAL source of hope in this world and is an EVER LIVING hope as you read in the last Hope Letter. Jesus is hope, Jesus is God, and Jesus is also THE WORD. This truth is written below in the scriptures from the book of John:

In the beginning was the THE WORD, and the Word was with with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)

And THE WORD was made flesh, and dwelled among us (and we behled his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of GRACE and TRUTH (John 1:14)

For the law was given by Moses, but GRACE and TRUTH came by JESUS CHRIST (John 1:17)

God's Word is Him and He IS His Word. So in order to truly place your hope in Jesus Christ, it means you must place your hope the Word of God, The Bible. To place your hope in the Word of God, you must consume the Word of God. In my personal walk, whenever I'm distant from God's Word I become very weak in my mind. Life circumstances and situations start speaking to me louder than I'm speaking to them. Light at the end of the tunnel becomes very faint and I get tempted to wonder if it's even there.

Trying to hope in God without His Word is like baking a cake without any flour, you're not going to get very far. Resources like these Hope Letters, sermons, and Youtube videos are awesome to help us keeping holding on, but it's the actual WORD, which is Christ himself that's going to be the anchor of our hope. When we have the Word in our hearts, it's the one thing this world can never take away. Despite what happens or who comes to attack our hope, we stand on the Word and declare God's truth over EVERYTHING. Isaiah 40:7-8 says The grass withers, the flowers fade because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely people are grass. The grass withers, the flowers fade: BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOREVER.

Whenever I'm reading scripture consistently, my hope is greater because I remember the promises of God over life circumstances. I'm more confident about that light at the end of the tunnel because I know God is not a man that He shall lie. I'm able to encourage others and point them to hope because when the Word is on my mind, it naturally comes up in conversation.

If you're finding it difficult to hope in Jesus, I encourage you to get into HIS WORD. That's going to be the foundation and life source of your hope. Even if it's just one scripture verse a day, that's a seed of hope that can work wonders in your life! Start with the Bible App and read the verse of the day each day (you may find you want to know more about the verse and you end up reading the whole chapter it's from!). You can also Google, scripture verses concerning whatever you're hoping for, if it's healing look up 3 healing scriptures and write them on flash cards and read them every day when you wake up and every night before bed. After doing this a while, go deeper, start reading a half a chapter in the Bible a day or a whole chapter (I suggest reading in the New Testament if you're new to Bible reading). Before you read pray to God to help you understand His Word and to show you hope through His Word. The more you do this, the stronger your hope will be and the more confident you'll be that Christ CAN.

I pray this letter ministers to you my friend. The Lord loves you.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka


Tell me how this Hope Letter helped you in the comments below!

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The Hope That NEVER Dies!

One of the most common thoughts and discouragements that come into a person's mind when they contract an STD is: No one is ever going to love me or No one is ever going to want to be with me. This is certainly something I believed and it brought me deeper into my sorrow after my diagnosis. However, this is a conclusion I came to after believing the popular myths about STD's and allowing those myths to dictate my future. This was my state of mind. Maybe you're in this place right now or maybe you just started talking to someone special and you fear they won't want you anymore once they find out.

In addition to believing this because of the myths, I also believed this because throughout my whole life I placed my hope in people, in this case men. My hope for a future marriage was in a man seeing me as a qualified candidate. I had to pass his tests. I had to meet all his expectations. I had to be everything he'd want me to be in order to be his wife. This is what I believed. I didn't believe I was worth being anyone's wife. Although I hoped to be one day, deep down I believed that my future husband would be the real prize and I'd just be one of his options. My hope, value, worth, everything was in a man choosing me as an option. So, if I already believed I was a last pick option and then I contracted herpes, it's clear to see why I completely removed myself from the game altogether. My hope was entirely in the opinion and acceptance of a man, so if you remove the man, you remove my hope.

Maybe your hope for relationships or future marriage didn't die, but your hope in other areas did: confidence, self-esteem, identity. All of these took a hit for me. If you're in that place right now, I'd like to point you to the scripture below:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant

and boundless mercy caused us to be born again to an EVER-LIVING hope and confident assurance through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).

When I gave my life to Christ on my bedroom floor on January 2, 2012, for the first time in my life my hope went from natural things and people in the world to Jesus Christ. I end every Hope Letter by saying "May your hope be in Jesus Christ" and this is why! When we surrender our lives and repent of our sin and ask Jesus to be the Lord of our lives we are born again. This verse is saying that our new birth experience gives a NEW hope, a hope that is EVER LIVING, a hope that NEVER DIES because it's through the resurrection of Christ. When Jesus rose from the dead He defeated EVERYTHING satan could ever throw at us in this world. Jesus defeated herpes, AIDS/HIV, syphilis, cancer, depression, mental illness, suicidal thoughts, death, EVERYTHING!! Through Him we have victory over the grave and anything that would try to send us to the grave because in Him our souls will live eternally in full health, prosperity, and glory. There's nothing the devil has over us anymore! This new hope that never dies is what carried me through when I first got saved and it's what's carrying me through today.

Notice God says this EVER LIVING hope is accessed through being born again. My friend, if you truly want hope, the real hope, you have to surrender to the one who IS hope. These letters can't be the source of your hope. I write them to point you to the source who is Jesus Christ. If you believe that you are a sinner and you've messed up and God came down to the earth in the form of His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price of your sins on the cross. And that he died and rose again three days later and by his sacrifice you can be forgiven, then I'd like to lead you in prayer to commit your life to Jesus.

Recite this out loud:

Lord Jesus, I believe you are God. I believe you died and rose again for my sins. I am a sinner and I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I pray that you wash me clean and show me how to walk in righteousness. I surrender my life to you and ask you to take control of my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.


Hallelujah!!!! You are now born again!!! You now have full access to the EVER LIVING hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ!! Praise the Lord! You have a hope that will never die, as long as it's in the finished work of Jesus Christ!


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

Tell me how this Hope Letter helped you in the comments below!

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I'm Losing Hope

God wants to speak hope this week through a sermon. This time the message is coming from my own pastor, Pastor Phillip Mitchell from Victory Church. God came down SO MIGHTLY in this message as the Holy Spirit spoke to every heart in the room to remind us that GOD IS IN CONTROL! If you are losing hope concerning your health, finances, or just life in general YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS.

Faith is the precursor to HOPE. God keeps bringing the 1 Corinthians 13:7 scripture up to me this week:

(Love) Bears all things, believes all things, hopes in all things, and endures all things.

This means when we have the love of God in us that love is ABLE to bear ALL things: every sickness, worry, fear, trouble this life could ever offer. Now that we're no longer bearing this thing, but we've given it to the love of God, that same love enables us to BELIEVE all things. We have the faith to believe God CAN heal, He CAN redeem our life, He CAN give us a new start. Through that same love of God, we can transcend from believing God can to HOPING HE WILL in all things. He WILL be my healer, He WILL be my provider, He WILL renew my mind. Then it is only through HOPE which starts with the Love of God in us that we are able to ENDURE ALL things. Through believing God CAN and hoping He WILL, I can endure this illness, I can endure this valley season, I can endure ALL because of God's LOVE.

God truly used Pastor Philip to encourage us in our faith, for without faith, there's no hope as we see in the scripture above. I pray the Holy Spirit shows you what's been fighting your faith and you start praying against it and allow God's truth and love to fill that space in your heart. Please watch the message below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnG9PaZTWyc

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

Tell me how this Hope Letter helped you in the comments below!

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The Greatest Healing of ALL TIME!

Let's talk about the GREATEST healing of all time! I came across it in the scripture below:

When Israel was a child [a young nation], I (God) loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. The more they [the prophets] called them [to repentance and obedience], the more they went away from them. They kept sacrificing to the Baals (false gods) and burning incense to the carved images (idols). Yet it is I who taught Ephraim (Israel) to walk, taking them in My arms; But they did not know I healed them. I led them gently with cords of a man, with bonds of love [guiding them]... (Hosea 11:1-4a, AMP)

Y'all all I did was see myself in this scripture when I read it and I had to start praising and glorifying God! The Lord describes the nation of Israel as His son that He set free from years of slavery in Egypt. Yet, despite His love and compassion toward them and calling them to repent and give their hearts to Him, they neglected God and continued to worship the false god of Baal and other idol images. Then God continues to explain how HE is the one who healed them and they didn't know. How did He heal them? With the cords of a man. What are the cords of a man? The thing that leads and draws a human being: LOVE! This wrecked me when I read it because that was me! I was rebellious and made myself the god of my life. I worshiped every decision that would benefit me and my desires first. Although my heart was sinful and selfish, God led me into a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ through the one thing I needed most, LOVE.

The children of Israel were exposed to a lot of diseases while in Egypt and with this being pre-modern medicine, many of these would be deemed "incurable" just because man didn't create a medicine for it yet. However, God's power SUPERSEDES that of man! God is the CREATOR and the SUSTAINER of the body. He doesn't have to wait until man made medicine and research catches up to the needs of the human body. He taught His people how to walk, as a father does a child, then took them in His arms and healed them as they went. What makes it the greatest healing is that it was two fold. The Lord saw their bodies were sick, but also their hearts from their rebellion. By drawing near to them and cradling them in His arms, God loved them. He forgave them. He showed them mercy and grace and gave them what no man made medicine could ever do: A SECOND CHANCE.

Similar to the Israel, when the Lord took me up in His arms on January 2, 2012 and started leading me with love, I didn't know in that moment my healing began. I was praying for physical healing, but had no idea God started healing me from all the brokenness that was inside me. The love and forgiveness of God is the greatest medicine a human being could ever receive. What if God just healed my body and left my heart the way it was? What if I never received the spiritual, heart healing I truly needed? I know 2 things that would happen: 1) You would never know the testimony or being reading Hope Letters for your own testimony 2) I would continue to live as my own god and sin and be on the fast track to hopelessness and hell.

We are born sinners and our sin breaks our relationship with God. It damages and brings illness and ailment to our connection with the Father. However, God created the medicine that no scientist, doctor, or psychiatrist could ever create: FORGIVENESS. God wants to start healing your soul TODAY. Will you take the medicine? Will you repent of your sin and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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God Can Transform Trouble Into Hope

Let's start out with a scripture from Hosea 2:14-15 today:


"But then I will win her (Israel) back once again. I will lead her out into a desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope."

The previous Hope Letter was written to anyone who felt like a prostitute that God could never love and that hope was out of their reach. This letter referenced the book of Hosea because the entire book is about the nation of Israel prostituting and cheating on the ONE TRUE GOD by worshiping pagan false gods and idols. HOWEVER, through out the whole book God is saying He desires to forgive, He desires to love His children, He desires to redeem and renew the relationship. That is the context for today's scripture, we ARE the modern day children of Israel. We've sinned against God and lived our lives for ourselves, yet He says He will WIN us back, meaning God is will to pursue and fight for our hearts. For YOUR HEART.

God not only says He wants to fight for us, but He says He will transform our valley of trouble into a GATEWAY OF HOPE. When I contracted herpes in 2011, if anyone would've ever told me that God was going to turn this pain and hardship into hope, I would've said "Shut your lying mouth and get out my face!" I was in a deep, dark, lonely valley of trouble and that's all I saw. I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, so the idea of hope was no where in sight. I was in darkness and darkness was in me. The enemy had me surrounded with thoughts of hopelessness and the trouble I was in was now my life.

Valley and Gateway are two words to describe a path of connection, both are used to get from a point A to a point B. When I was in sin with my ex, I chose that path. That path became a dark valley of trouble, but it's what I willingly chose. Since I willingly chose the Valley of Trouble, logic says that I should accept the consequences and live in trouble forever. Sure worldly logic would say that, but GOD'S WORD IS NOT WORLDLY LOGIC. God's word is LOVE and FORGIVENESS. God's word says He can redeem our decisions or the consequences of someone else's decisions in our life and He can TRANSFORM our Valley of Trouble into a GATEWAY OF HOPE! The Valley leads to death, but the Gateway leads to Life and Hope in Jesus Christ! No matter how troublesome your valley is, God wants to transform it. He wants you to cry out and surrender your life to Him by admitting you're a sinner and asking for forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Declare that Christ died for your sins and rose again. Ask Him to take control of your life and help you live for him. Once you do this, God will begin to transform your Valley. I know because He did it for me on January 2, 2012. I love you so much my friend and I pray you repent and allow God to change your path from a Valley to a GATEWAY OF HOPE.


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka


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With Hope You Can ENDURE!

A couple of weeks ago in church my pastor quoted 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now abide in faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. He asked the question, why does God tell us to remain in these three things? He answered because when you have these three things, you can go through ANYTHING in life and bounce back. No matter what storm or trial comes your way, you may be down for a season, but when you have faith in Jesus Christ, hope in Jesus Christ, and love from Jesus Christ, you WILL NOT be down permanently.

These are not only gifts from God to us, but these are literal characteristics to who God is. When we abide in faith, hope, and love, we're abiding in the character of God and God is not stopped or limited by any illness, circumstance or situation. There's nothing in this world that is greater than God, He reigns over everything! Just as His word says, GREATER is HE that lives in you than he (the enemy) who lives in the world (1 John 4:4). When God's faith, hope, and love lives in us, God says they ARE GREATER than anything the devil throws at us, that's why we won't be kept down through the trials. That's why we'll always be able to bounce back! That's why no down season is a permanent one!

God could've healed me from herpes the same night I got saved and first prayed for healing, but He didn't. He gave me something much greater, He gave me HOPE! Hope is what sustained me while I waited to be healed. Hope is what made me want to know more about Jesus Christ. Hope is what kept me believing God after I got healed. Hope is what's kept me celibate for 7 years. Hope is what helped my heart to heal after being hurt by people in the church. Hope is what got me through the tragedies in 2018, the hardest year of my life and still keeping me. Hope is the gift of God that allows us to ENDURE (1 Corinthians 13:7).

In addition to reading these letters, I pray you add hope in your prayer request to God. It's a gift from God and a part of His actual being. Pray for Him to grant you hope, not only for healing, but for ALL things because after you get healed you WILL need hope to get through whatever comes next in life. Hope in Christ is the guarantee you'll get through it! God bless you.


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka



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Having Faith Ain't Easy

                                 

Can I keep it really, real with you? FAITH AIN'T EASY.

As human beings, we are constantly hitting points in life where we're stuck between what world logic/society says we should believe, what our flesh (sinful nature)/inner fear says we should believe, and what God says we should believe.

I'm in this season RIGHT NOW. I keep hitting these "hard rock" moments one after the other and I have to choose what I'm going to believe. Whoever says faith is easy is a LIAR!! Walking in faith in Jesus Christ has been the hardest endeavor I've ever done in my entire life. Some of the feelings I'm going through relate to believing words God has spoken over me, having an expectation, praying for them, and then having opposite things happen, and feeling disappointed.

I remember these were the same exact feelings I felt while I was praying to God for healing from herpes. God's word said I could be healed, I believed it, I prayed for healing, I expected to be healed, and then boom the opposite happens, I'd get an outbreak. I had a hope for healing that was constantly being challenged by what I saw and what I was going through. Now, here I am six years later, healed of herpes, yet still facing the same feelings of disappointment. But I thank God for these Hope Letters because as I'm writing, God is encouraging me through my own testimony.

In a previous Hope Letter wrote about us having hope as long as we're alive. Well, I'm seeing the same truth exist in the reverse: as long as we're alive we will face opposition to our hope. Why? Because we live in a fallen/broken world due to sin and perfect lives with perfect stories just don't exist. However, there IS A PERFECT GOD WHO HAS A PERFECT PLAN TO USE EVERYTHING (EXCITEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT) FOR OUR GOOD (Rom 8:28).

I may not like feeling disappointed or being in this place where my hope is constantly challenged, but one thing I can do is look to what God has done before. If I gave up hope while I was waiting for my healing, I literally would have never gotten healed and would never be able to testify to you today. God used my continued hope to give you hope years later. Hope births hope!

God never said it would be easy in the Bible, but He said it would be POSSIBLE. So today as hard as it is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I choose to believe God's word despite what I see and trust His timing because through the hope of today, there will be a greater hope for someone else tomorrow.

I leave you with Jesus' last words to the disciples in Acts 1:6-8

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Tell someone about Jesus while you wait.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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How "What If" Questions Feed Hopelessness

In a previous Hope Letter I wrote to you about hopelessness and how God's word says the only thing required for us to have hope is to be ALIVE, that's it (Ecclesiastes 9:4)! Anything else telling us the future will never be better than the present is a lie from the enemy.

Today, I want to continue addressing hopelessness and focus on something many of us do that feeds the demonic spirit of hopelessness. The well-known asking of "What if?" questions. What if God never heals me from this "incurable" illness? What if I carry this burden forever? What if person X doesn't love me anymore when I tell them my diagnosis? And the list goes on. All of these questions, question the future, but they question the worst case scenario of the future. The enemy has already placed the seed of hopelessness in our present and it grows when we project it into our future.

WHAT IF we read God's word and started to ask What If questions about His promises playing out in our future? Such as, What if God heals me? What if when God heals me, He uses my testimony to heal others? What if God's word is true and He loved me before I had this illness and He loves me now? There's nothing wrong with asking questions about our future, but whether we ask those questions from a place of fear vs. faith will have a major impact on whether we live a life of hopelessness or total hope in God, who will NEVER lie!

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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There's No Hope For Me

A few months ago, I came across this scripture in the book of Ecclesiates in the Bible and it has REALLY blessed me and I would love to start with it:

For to him that is joined to all the living THERE IS HOPE:

for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Ecclesiates 9:4

Hopelessness is the state of living and believing that the future will never be better than the present. The moment our lives are hit with horrible, sorrowful news or scenarios, the enemy shoots a thought into our minds that this is it. The current gloom and doom is the end all be all, nothing can be done to change this. When we submit our minds to this belief, the enemy has successfully planted a seed of hopelessness and it will grow into every area of our lives until living seems pointless. When I was first diagnosed with herpes in 2011, this was what the devil did to me and I entered a total state of hopelessness and depression. The doctor told me this was my life, so that was my life.

HOWEVER, this belief totally contradicts the scripture above. The doctors say one thing, my mind says one thing, but what does GOD say? God says if we are LIVING we have hope. THE ONLY CONDITION FOR HOPE IS TO BE ALIVE. God didn't say if your illness can be cured medically you have hope. God didn't say if you're healed as soon as you pray you have hope. He said IF YOU'RE LIVING. The very fact that God has kept us alive means that He has a plan for our future! Satan is a liar! Our hope is not in doctors (God bless them for their jobs though), it's not in test results, it's not in how we feel, or the thoughts the enemy plants in our minds, but it's in God, who's kept us alive and says if He's done that then WE HAVE HOPE!

Lord Jesus, may your word penetrate the heart of this person today. Lord I pray you uproot every demonic seed of hopelessness the enemy has planted, destroy it with the fire of your Holy Spirit and plant in them seeds of LIFE and HOPE! Praise your name, that their very life is a symbol of hope because you are not a man that you shall lie. May they meditate on this scripture today and walk in your hope for a better future because the future is in your hands. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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