Here's hoping

I really 'hope' that someday I can live in this Greenwich Village neighborhood. Manhattan, NYC.

You know, there are alot of things that I hope for in this life that I might not receive. I always toss the word 'hope' around like it means the most trivial thing. "I really hope my mom makes chicken enchiladas on Sunday for dinner, I really hope that I get invited to that party, I really hope that the US wins this soccer game against Ghana!"

...Then I get disapointed.

It goes deeper as well. "I really hope I get married, maybe even before all my younger siblings do? Maybe before I turn 30?"

...Then I get disapointed.

BUT, Hope is a gift from the Almighty and Gracious Father meant for His chosen. His chidren. It is a hope that will never end. He meant it for our souls, our satisfaction, our perserverance, our delight. For when we hope in the ONE TRUE GOOD GOD, we are delighted, we laugh at the future, and long for His nearness. When we hope in the things that He has given us....

...then we are never disapointed.

Talking to yourself....

Well, as many people are, I talk out loud to myself all the time. Most of the time it is a list of things I need to do and it doesn't have significant impact on my soul. Recently I have begun to practice the discipline of speaking truth to myself instead of listening to mySELF. SELF lies. Emotions are not truth, however powerful they may feel. The Gospel is the Truth.
Would you join me in this? It brings perspective and it centers your thoughts on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read this:

“Preach to yourself” by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Yourself is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965/2002), pages 20-21.

Also, listen to CJ Mahaney's sermon Downcast Soul/Hopeful Soul from the Resolved Conference website. It is from the 2009 conference. Worth every second.

I'm gonna go tell myself to Hope in Him,
Merea