After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is I refresh. Psalm 32 eight says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye upon you. And I just had a vision of my niece is here. And I remember when my husband helped teach her how to ride a two Wheeler for the first time. You remember that Rebecca?
And I just think, you know, when a mom and dad are behind there , their kid on that bike, you're loving eyes on them , you're instructing them, you're teaching them, you're so excited for them. And that's how the Lord is with us. We might still have our training wheels on and some different areas, you know, but he's like, you got this baby girl, come on, you can ride this to Wheeler. You can grow in your faith in this area. And he's cheering us on and his loving eye is upon us. I love that.
Oh, you know, not only does he see us, but he hears us. And not only does he hear us, but he answers us. Have you ever known that your husband or one of your kids has heard you? But they didn't answer you? Like, are you there? But you know what, the Lord hears us. Andy answers us. Jeremiah 33 three, someone told me one time, that's the Lord's phone number, don't you love that says call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know. Oh, I love that.
Well, Abraham, our father of faith, and the one who didn't waiver in the promises of God, but he , he kept even against all hope in hope, believed he wasn't a perfect man, was he? He wasn't perfect. You know, he had some mistakes and he tried to kind of make God's promises go a little quicker in his life, right? And he listened to his wife. You gotta be careful if we're, if we're married ladies, it'd be careful what we tell our husbands. But so he listened to his wife and he took a second wife.
He took Hagar, his Sarah's maid servant to be his wife. And so when Hagar got pregnant, Sarah got a little angry and she was not happy. And so she started mistreating Hagar and Hagar ran away into the desert. She was all alone. She was pregnant, she was in the desert. That was before there was, you know , uh , fat geo finders or you know, I mean, she was out by herself. There was no helicopter going out and looking after her, look at going after her. But you know what she encountered?
El RAI , the God who sees the Lord saw her and he met her where she was at and he instructed her and he said, Hey, I know it's been difficult, but you need to go back because you're going to be well taken care of where you are. So she went back, she went back, well, several years after Hagar, his first attempt of running away, she runs away again. And this time she needed to go good. But you know what she encountered again? The God who saw her, but he was now the God who heard her.
She was crying and sobbing and her son who was over by another Bush was crying. And sobbing as well. And God heard them. And he came and he ministered to them and he gave them provision and he's spoken, prophesied over them about how he would bless them and where they were to go. And so, you know what ladies, if , uh , if someone could be in a desert all alone and God could see and God could hear and God could give prophetic words, he's going to do that for you.
And for me when we feel all alone, when we were afraid to tell anybody else what we're going through, how the Lord hears, the Lord sees, and his loving eye is on us in the rate of hope. We must keep the light on. Oh, David continues in Psalm 13. He says, give light to my eyes. Give light to my eyes. Oh ladies, we need light. We need to keep the light on. Oh, the enemy would love to keep us in those dark places. He would love to keep us in those dark thoughts.
He would love to remind us of all the things that are wrong in our world. Oh ladies, there's a lot of things that the news are telling us that we just want to go hide, right? But we've got to remember, we've got to remember who we serve. We've got to remember that Jesus said to us, you'll have many troubles, yes, but take heart. I've overcome the world he has overcome and when we get grafted into him and we become his daughters, we are overcomers as well.
We are women of the light and we need to keep the light on. Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesians one 17 and 18 he said, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Oh, I pray that over my kids, right?
No greater joy do we have, when we know that our kids are serving him, Lord, give light to our kids' eyes, Lord, give them the wisdom and the revelation that only you can give, right? Mamas , we want to pray those things over our kids. We want that for ourselves, but we want that for them as well. Oh, in the old Testament, you remember the story of Elijah when the, there was just the army was all around and attacking and Alicia, he had eyes of hope, right?
But he knew that his servant was afraid. And so he prayed to God and he said in second Kings, he said, Oh Lord, open his eyes. So he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the Hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around. Oh ladies, Oh, the Lord is all around us. He's got angel armies all around us and we need to ask him for eyes of hope. Lord, open my eyes that I may see you working. Open my eyes of hope, that I can see the beauty around me.
Oh Lord, be the glory. And the lifter of my head give light to my eyes. Oh, the best way that I have found to be in his light is to be in his word. His word is that lamp unto our feet and the light into our path. Ladies without his word, we are at risk of losing our way. Without it, we lack true wisdom. Without it, we're at risk of losing hope. Oh, there's so much hope in the pages of scripture and we need it.
Oh , Romans 1514 says, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Oh ladies, in the weight of hope, we must remind ourselves of the goodness of the Lord. Oh, we need to remind ourselves of the goodness of the Lord David. In Psalm 13 on a high note with the word, but he says, but I trust in the Lords . I'm failing.
Love in my heart rejoices in your salvation, our ladies , whatever's happening around us, we've got to settle in our hearts that nothing can separate us from the unfailing love of the Lord. Nothing can even death cannot separate us from the unfailing love of the Lord in our hearts. Our ladies, we need to be rejoicing in his salvation, our names. If we have asked Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, if nothing else, wonderful happens to us. Our names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Oh, in this Easter season, I hope that we can rejoice like never before. May this be just a season of us rejoicing in our salvation, no matter what's going on around us. Ladies, no matter what's going on around us. So David said, he ends by saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me. Oh, can we sing in the middle of the storm? Ladies, can we sing in the middle of the storm? Oh yes, yes. And we must.
We must sing because when we sing to the Lord, David showed us throughout the Psalms. He'd pour out his heart and he'd always end with, I know that you're with me. God, I know that your salvation is for sure, and he would sing to the Lord. Oh, there's something powerful. Anybody heard Bethel's song? Raise a hallelujah. If you haven't, you need to go listen to it. I'm not going to sing it to you tonight, but I'm going to read a few of the stances.
I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies. I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief. I raised the hallelujah. My weapon is a melody. I raise a hallelujah. Heaven comes to fight for you and for me. I raise a hallelujah. I'm going to sing in the middle of the storm louder and louder. You're going to hear my praises roar up from the ashes. Hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. I will raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me. I raised the hallelujah.
I'll watch the darkness flee. I'll raise the hallelu that Lew , yet in the middle of the mystery, Oh, in the middle of the mystery. Ladies, let's raise a hallelujah. I'll raise the hallelujah fear. You've lost your hold on me. I'm going to sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're going to hear my praises roar up from the ashes. Hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive.
Oh ladies, may we sing like never before that the King is alive and he's coming again and we need to have eyes of hope to see that he is coming. Oh, and for years we've sang the hymn . My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Oh ladies, if our hope is built on anybody or anything other than the Lord, we're going to be disappointed. But when our hope is built on the Lord, we might have some storms.
We might have some wind coming, but when our hope is on the foundation of the Lord, we will stand and we will be okay. When the winds die down and the storm is over and we'll even be okay in the middle of it, maybe we build our faith and our hope on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So I can tell you from experience that you can be in the word.
You can be an active fellowship, you can be in prayer, but if you get stuck in disappointment or you get stuck and hopelessness, Oh, it messes with you. It messes with your faith. It messes with your life. It messes with your joy. And you know what? We can't camp out in a fence. We can't camp out in disappointment. We can't camp out in unbelief and we can't camp out and hopelessness. We've got to be women who move beyond that and move forward in the Lord.
Don't you wish sometimes that we had that cloud by day and the fire by night of the Israel? Oh, it's time to move. Okay Lord, here we go. You know, I love that, but, but you know what, ladies? I heard my pastor say a few months ago, he said, you know, everything about us is made to go forward. Our eyes aren't in the back of our head. Our feet are pointing forward, right?
Are , I mean, you know, you can kind of scratch your back on , but you know, everything that God, the way he designed us was to move forward. Let's move forward in the Lord. Ladies, let's move forward. Let's settle on our hat and our hearts that no matter what we see, no matter what we feel, God is good. God is good. He is good. Oh, and gratitude fuels our hope. Measuring God rather than our giant fuels. Our hope remaining confident of the goodness of the Lord fuels our hope.
Oh, in fact, it says in Psalm 27 I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Oh ladies, I said that verse over and over and over again. In this last season, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I was preaching to myself, and the next part of that verse says, wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Oh to take heart meets . Cheer up, cheer up.
Ladies, as you're waiting on the Lord, as you're hoping in the Lord, cheer up, cheer up because his goodness is coming. His goodness is all around you. His goodness is there. We just need to lift our eyes to see it in the middle of the storm. We as women, women have asked them how long a Lord questions ourselves, haven't we? How long until my marriage is restored? How long until I meet mr? Right? How long until I'm , and if you're married, that is mr. Right?
By the way, how long until I'm able to conceive a child, how long until my protocol son or daughter returns home and fulfills the call of the Lord on their lives? How long will this sickness last? How long will this sting of betrayal hurt? How long will this rejection hurt? Oh, we have some of those questions as well, don't we? And the Lord can be trusted with our questions. He can be trusted with our questions and he wants us to come out of those seasons stronger.
Oh. I think sometimes when we walk through those seasons and it's almost like we're treading water and we're in it, it's difficult. We come out ladies with bigger muscles, we come out with a stronger faith. We come out, we might have a few little battle scars, but guess what? Just like Jesus, when he can show you the scars and say, look, look what I've done for you. Some of our battle scars, we can say, look what the Lord's done.
Yeah, this happened, but let me tell you what he did for me and in those areas we help others along in their walk and in those those areas we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Don't be ashamed of your scars. Don't be ashamed of them. You , you testify of the goodness of the Lord. Through those you are living proof. You are living proof that the enemy did not get the final word. Oh ladies, there's a Psalm .
There's a verse in Psalm 42 five that says, why are you downcast, Oh my soul. Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him. Ladies that will preach to ourselves when we're downcast, Oh my soul. Why are you downcast? Put your hope in God. Put your hope in God. Quit putting your hope in the lesser thing. That's why your downcast put your hope in God. So tonight I want to call out hope in us Christ in us the hope of glory, hope and waiting go hand in hand, right?
They go hand in hand and Isaiah 40 says even youths grow tired and weary. Young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength and that word hope there can be translated weight . Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, hope and weight go hand in hand and when we do that we will be strengthened and will soar on wings like Eagles will run and not grow. Weary will walk and not faint.
I'm not an expert in the Greek and the Hebrew languages, but I wanted to geek out on you for just a split second here because we know that that Hebrew word for hope can also be waked, right? Um, but it also, there was part of that Hebrew word, which is Q, a. V, a. H if you want to write that down. I don't know how to say it, but it meant to bind together. It meant to twist a cord to gather, to collect.
And it also meant to expect into patiently wait for and to hope I'd never heard the other side of that. Meaning the twisting together, the binding together, the collecting and the gathering together. But you know, it reminded me of a three stranded cord is not quickly broken. A three stranded cord is not quickly broken.
And when we gather pieces of our testimony and we gather the goodness of the Lord, and we gather those places of hope and faith and joy and peace and the testimonies, Oh, there's strength, there's strength in that cord . There's strength. When we twist those up and we gather those up ladies. Oh. And it's not easily broken. I think of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit, that three stranded cord, I think of faith and hope and love, right? Faith and hope and love.
Hope is sandwiched in between that faith. We're [inaudible] . Our hope is spurred on by faith and our hope is blanketed in love. Don't you love that? My mom said to me that she heard that that hope is like faith on tip toes. Don't you like that? It's like, Lord , what ? What'd you going to do next? What's going to happen? What's, it's like a little kid at Christmas time, you know, tiptoeing out to see everything on that Christmas tree. That's what hope is ladies.
Oh, and we have this hope as Hebrew says, as an anchor for our soul firm and secure, and I think of that rope again, I think at that cord that, that, that not a cull look right with the anchor. That's our hope. It's firm . It's secure. If you've seen a rope on a ship, that rope is like, I mean, there's no tearing that rope. There's no frame with that rope. That rope is secure. Oh, in biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It's not wishful thinking, it's based.
It's never based on what's possible with man. It is based on the confident expectation of the promises that are secure in Jesus and another gym of hope that's tucked into Hosea two 14 and 15 Oh, it's an interesting story and you'd have to read the whole book of Hosea to get the picture of this, but I'm going to just share a little bit with you. Out of a Hosea two 14 and 15 says, I'm now going to alert her. I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards and I will make the Valley of ACOR a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. That word ACOR means trouble and there was a season in the Israelites life, excuse me, in the Israelites, a journey where they got into some trouble and it was in the Valley of a core and that was the Valley of trouble. You know what, ladies? Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble, right?
And Jesus is always there for us as a door of hope. No matter what trouble we find ourselves in, he is that door of hope. Jesus is the door. He is the way, the truth, the life. He is our door of hope in the valleys of trouble. And you know, Jesus dealt with our sin on the cross once for all, once for all time. He dealt with our sin. And you know, there was a crown of thorns that was twisted together and placed upon his head. And we've seen the pictures where there was drops of blood coming.
Our King of Kings and Lord of Lords wore this crown of thorns and you know, it was twisted together. This is a picture of hope in the times of trouble. Jesus made a way for us to go through the door of salvation. He made a way for us to be part of his family. He wore that crown of thorns. So ladies, are we willing to fully surrender? Most of us in this room have surrendered to Jesus.
We're living for him, but there's always ways that we can surrender more because there's things that just come up. The enemies always trying to sneak in there and get us off course. Are we willing to fully surrender to relinquish control? That's a big one for us ladies, right? To trust him in the process of life in the middle times, to pray like Jesus did. Not my will, but yours be done. Not my will, but yours be done.
Lord, to believe that his ways truly are greater, that his thoughts truly are higher than our thoughts. Our hope must be rooted in Jesus. All throughout the old Testament. We see just the cords of the weaving of the messianic process , prophecies of a Messiah coming, and I love the picture of, of the story of Rayhab . Again, the cord , the Scarlet cord that was, that was brought down that window out that window to save her family when the spies came and saved her.
Oh, that Scarlet cord that went down, that was twisted together and that, that hope that she had, that salvation would come to her family. Ladies. Oh, may there not be any in our families that are not covered by the blood of the lamb and are making their way and their journey with the Lord to eternity. Oh, we just were .
We just claim that in Jesus name over our households, Lord, we just put that Scarlet rope down and we just say, Oh, Jesus, thank you that you are our door of hope, our door of hope. Well, ladies on the, in the new Testament, we see that Jesus came, he fulfilled the prophecies, and he submitted his will to the father. He died on the cross and he Rose again. Oh, and we're part of that, that, that other side of the cross. Now, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it beautiful? But you know what?
There's also still a weight where it's like we're saying, Lord, are we there yet? He's like, how quite yet? Yes, we're there because he's overcome. Yes, we're there because everything has been finished on the cross, but this isn't our home. We're not quite there yet. Ladies, he's preparing a place for us world . There'll be no more tears. There'll be no more sorrow, no more sickness. Oh no more having to set the alarm clock, right ? No more. I mean, no more.
A lot of everything's , but you know what? There's going to be a lot of this. Just going to be a lot of fellowship. There's going to be a lot of cheering each other on. There's going to be a lot of just, Oh Jesus, what are we doing today? He, it's going to be wonderful. It's going to be wonderful and so we're not there quite yet. Stay buckled up, stay in the game, stay in the car, stay on the journey. Don't give up. There's beautiful scenery along the way.
There's going to be a lot of good things that are going to happen, but there's even more wonderful things that are going to happen when we get into those heavenly places. Psalm 68 11 says the Lord [inaudible] now says the word and the women who proclaim it are MIT throng. Oh, may we be women who proclaim the good news. That's our hope ladies. This world needs hope. The world needs hope and if we are just walking around to feed it all the time and believe you me, I've been there, done that.
And there's times that we are sad and we're feeling that hope deferred, but we can't stay there because the world needs a picture of hope. The world needs to know there's something else besides this. So we made we be women who proclaim the good news. The winter is gone, the spring has come. We are Easter people. We are Easter people. We are on this side of the cross. Jesus is alive. Good news. He's making all things new. He's coming again. He's preparing that place for you and for me.
He's working things for our good death could not hold him down and death will not hold us down. Jesus has come to give a new life. May we be found on our tiptoes looking to Jesus with eyes of hope. Lord, I thank you for your words that are true. I thank you that you love your daughters. I thank you, Lord that you are right now just coming and bringing healing balm onto the areas of our lives that have felt hopeless.
Lord, you're bringing streams into the desert, places of our lives, and Lord, I just thank you that there will be fruitfulness that will arise. There will be flowers that will bloom. Lord, there will be a sweet smell of heaven coming. So Lord, I thank you that you're not finished with us yet. I thank you, Lord, that we are on this journey and that you are leading the way. I thank you that we are tucked under the hymn of your garment, Lord, under your arm and Lord, that you are with us.
You hear us, you answer us. You see us? Oh Lord, we set our sights and our hope on you. We love you, Jesus. Amen.
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