Allow me to introduce my granddaughter, Hope Isabelle Frierson, born December 3^rd, 2014, weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 ounces.

Tears, excitement, and even a stunned silence greeted Hope outside the nursery window when her dad, Hoit, presented her to her new family members. No doubt you will agree with me that there is something about babies that can melt the coldest of hearts and even bring laughter to those in pain. Oh yes, God knew what He was doing when He created babies.

Hoit & Hope

As most grandmothers, I was elated with the birth of my fourth grandchild; I now have three girls and one boy. Naturally, I love all four of them dearly, but I have to tell you that this fourth baby stirred something inside of me even before she was born. Let me explain.

Hope’s mom, Heather, called me about a month before she was born and said: “We now have a name for the baby; it will be Hope.” Immediately, I could literally feel something leap up inside of me. It made me think of Elizabeth when she heard the voice of Mary coming to tell her of her impending virgin birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (Luke 1:41)

It was one of those moments when you gasp for breath and you feel as though God is standing right there beside you saying, “Take notice; I have something I want to tell you.”

And, in the coming weeks, He did just that as He brought my faith to a new level with – yes, you guessed it, “HOPE”, a feeling of expectation and desire for certain things to happen.

I don’t know about you, but I confess that there are times I get discouraged along this journey through life. So much so, that I sometimes send out a distress signal toward heaven: “Are you still there, God?”

Did you ever notice that our distress calls are often met with silence, which makes it seem as though, yes, I will go ahead and say it: “God doesn’t really care about me. If He did, He’d fulfill His promises to me, and He’d dry all these tears from my eyes.” It is at this point that the pit of discouragement gets darker.

It’s as though He allows us to wallow around in self-pity awhile, and then one day, quiet unexpectedly, He shows up as He did with me the day I received the phone call telling me what my grandbaby’s name would be. Hope leaped up inside of me again and I was filled with a renewed feeling of expectation and desire for certain things that I have prayed for years to happen in the coming months.

In times like these, I am reminded of the journey Abraham took with God for 25 years while waiting for his promised son, Isaac, to be born. I have to believe that Abraham got discouraged and lost hope during the long wait. In fact I am sure it must have been a loss of hope that caused him to commit adultery in order to help God out with His promise of a son. After all, Abraham was a man of faith, right?

But the Bible points to times during this 25 year period that God would show up at different times and renew His covenant with Abraham. I personally believe it was to give him a renewed feeling of hope, along with a high-five proclaiming; “don’t give up; keep on keeping on.” And, as we all know, at the appointed time, Isaac was born and God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled.

And so to you, my readers, may I encourage you to have a renewed feeling of hope and expectancy for a move of God in your life during the year 2015. May the birth of my granddaughter, Hope, cause a new level of faith to leap up inside you as it did me.

Hope From the Book of Romans

The book of Romans is one that is filled with some of the greatest verses in the Holy Bible. When it comes to the topic of hope, Romans provides many verses to inspire you.

Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.