God has been impressing upon me to start doing what He has called me to do... writing devotionals and object lessons. I've been rather sparatic about it in the past, but hopefully, with His help and inspiration, I'll be able to complete the task.

Many of these will probably be on my site... www.hispurposes.com, but that will probably be in the future; near future hopefully. So in any case, let's begin by writing about somthing God has just showed me as I was writing up to this point... the word "hopefully".

Hopefully, along with many other words, such as Hallelujia and faithful, is a word that has lost some meaning. Even in writng this introduction, I didn't realize exactly what I was saying, which is most likely the reason God brought it to my attention!

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I am hopeful. I have not always been hopeful, or full of hope as the word suggests. There was a time that I thought everything was chance, luck of the draw. I knew that I wasn't an accident, but I thought everything around me or everything that happened to me was. The problem with that thinking is that when everything is chance, you can't have hope. Hope must have a foundation, it must look forward to a future goal of some sort. Chance can have no such goal, becuase afterall, it's just chance. You can't even have a goal to hope in becuase chance negats even that!

A few definations of hope are as follows:

1) The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

2) To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.

3) A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.

I am full of hope because I serve the God of hope. Jesus Christ has given me hope. Hope of an eternity in heaven with Him, and hope of an abundant life with Him on earth. He has given me dreams and desires to be a powerful man of God, a faithful friend, son, brother, and future husband and father.

With all of that he has given me hope to know that I'll be in positions to be all of those: times to the man who walks in spiritual authority, times to be a friend that sticks through the hard times, times to be a brother that is able to give hope just as I have received it, and hopefully soon to be a husband to a God fearing woman and a father to children who serve the same awesome and powerful God I do.

I have hope because I serve a God who gives hope. I am full of hope, or hopeful, because this same God has filled me with the hope of His promised Holy Spirit.

I have days where I don't feel hopeful, but even then, I hope it doesn't last long. And that's when my living God fills me with hope all the more.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul Tejera <><