Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Pastor Heather…
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to prayer this morning. My name is Pastor Heather, and I have the honor of leading prayer this morning. And so I just want to welcome you.
As the world gets darker, we need hope in Him…
I had on my heart to talk about hope today. And I do feel like we are in a season where the world is getting darker, but that doesn’t mean the church is not getting brighter, right? We should be getting brighter. As the world gets darker, our light gets brighter. If you’ve ever been in a dark room and somebody just lights a match, everybody’s eyes go to that little teeny speck of light because it’s so bright in that darkness.
We need to encourage ourselves…
And so I just wanted to talk about hope. I wanted to encourage ourselves today. There’s a lot happening and I’ll be honest, I’m not a big “turn on the news” kind of person. Some of you are, and I love those of you that are news watchers and pray-ers. You have to be. You can’t just watch the news and walk away. If you are going to be a news watcher, you also have to be a pray-er. So I congratulate and honor and esteem those of you that do that. For me and for my heart, I just know I have to stay in a place of peace. And I know the Holy Spirit will bring things to my awareness and is supposed to pray for and speak over. And everybody’s different. Everybody’s callings are different. Everybody’s purpose is different. And so there are those people, like I know Pastor Lynne is one of those people. She’s watching, she’s praying. She knows those current events and what’s going on, and I’m so thankful for that. And you need to know where your peace level is and what you are called to do and what your purpose is in the body of Christ.
We have to watch our own peace level…
One of my highest callings, I believe, is to edify, to exhort, to encourage. And in order for me to be in that place to be able to do that, I also have to just watch my own peace level. We’ll put it that way. You know, when you’re offering peace and encouragement to other people, you just know where your threshold is. And so just watch that. I think too much of anything is excess, honestly. But staying in that place that you know, and the Holy Spirit will show you if you’ve been too heavy and you’re watching the news and then all of a sudden you just feel it’s pulling you down. It might be time to turn off the TV. It might be time to get into the presence of God. Amen. Because as we do focus on the things of this world, it will affect you. We’re supposed to keep our eyes on Jesus, right? Not that we ignore what’s happening in the world. I’m not saying that, but just knowing where that balance is and obviously knowing what His Word says. And especially in difficult situations.
The definition of hope…
So, I want to talk about hope. And so I am a Word person, so I wanted to know what is the definition of hope? And so the definition of hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, a person or thing that may help or save someone.” We know who that person is. “Grounds for believing that something good may happen and a feeling of trust.” I like that. So it’s like expectation, trust, a person that can save you. All that we know is Jesus, God the Holy Spirit. They provide hope.
My journey with hope deferred…
So I had a time in my life… I just wanted to share this part of my journey. My husband and I served at another church for 15 years in Florida. Scott, my husband, grew up in Living Word. His parents were pastors here and some of you know his parents, Steve and Jerry. They’re down in Florida now. Still serving the Lord. But they retired. They’re in Florida. So now we have a warm place to visit. So I’m thankful for that in the winter. But he grew up in the church.
I didn’t get born again until I was 18. But we were here at Living Word and then we felt a call to go youth pastor at a church in Florida. So we were there for 15 years. Anyways, when that season came to an end, it was kind of a… “we don’t know if you’re a fit here anymore.” And they were kind of changing some of their pastors and staff and such. And so we were like, “Okay, it’s time to go back home.” This was always home to us. And so we came back home. When we did, the housing market in Florida, especially in our neighborhood, crashed and so our house was up for sale. And I think there was like six other houses in our neighborhood that were like in foreclosure and bankruptcy, all that kind of stuff. And so it was really not a great time to move and try to sell your house. So we moved in with my in-laws who are precious people. But living in your in-laws’ basement, it has a timeline to it. It has an expiration date to it. And we knew it was temporary until we could get our house sold. But our house in Florida didn’t sell for two and a half years.
And so here we are in Minnesota trying to find jobs. Paying a mortgage on a house that we didn’t live in, in Florida, waiting for it to sell. And finally it’s sold. But then now we had to save up for our own house. Rented a town home for three years, and then it was six years before we got our own home here at Minnesota. And for somebody that’s a nester, that is a very long time. So during that season, this is what I like to tell people. I had to put my “house god” on the altar a lot. A lot. And not that wanting a house is a bad desire, but I can’t want that more than I want God’s plan for my life. I can’t want that more than I want my relationship with Jesus. And so I would say probably weekly, monthly, that “house god” had to just keep going at His feet. I remember moments of crying out to God “When?” “How much longer?” But I will keep my eyes on you. I will do what you’ve called me to put my hand to.
And throughout that time, all of our furniture was in storage. And so this is kind of a quick side, interesting story. All of our furniture was in storage. And about a year into it, we had to move our furniture from one storage place to another. And it was in St. Michael. And I just remember sitting at the McDonald’s next to where our storage unit was and just crying out to God and be like, “Why is this taking so long? I really thought we would have our own house.” And just, “But I trust you.” And I just had to keep “I trust you, but I trust you.”
The Lord gave me a vision of our home…
So then a few years later, we are renting our townhome and we’re getting closer to saving up. And the Lord gave me this vision of a driveway with a fall tree to the right of it and a U-Haul truck in it. And I was like, “That’s it. This fall! We are moving. Everybody, the Lord showed me; He gave that to me.” And I was like I knew it was the Lord. And I was excited about that and I was telling our family and they were getting amped up. Fall came and went and we were still renting that townhome. And I was like, “Lord, I really felt like you showed that to me.” And just dealing with that disappointment. Disappointment is the opposite of hope, you know, dealing with that disappointment.
The vision was fulfilled…
Long story short, the next fall we moved into our home that we’re in now, and I’d forgotten the vision, I’ll be honest with you. Because when we saw the home, it was summer and you know how it just takes a while to do all the stuff you have to do to get into a home. And when we finally moved in, I was sitting in the driveway and I looked into the right of the driveway was this beautiful fall tree. And I was like, “Oh! This is it. This is what He showed me.” But it was a year later. So my timetable was not always God’s timetable, but He did bring it to pass.
And just a funny quick sidenote. It was right next to that McDonald’s where I sat in the parking lot and cried out to God. And I can just see… hindsight is always 20/20, right? I can just see that moment of God looking down and going, “Baby girl, it’s right across the road. Just hang in there. We’re almost there. Just hang in there.” But in that moment when you don’t know and you can’t see, we have to trust Him.
We have to lay down those “false gods”…
And so all that to say in that time of just laying that “house god” down, like I say, and we all have our gods… our things like “I’ll be happy when I find a spouse.” “I’ll be happy when my kids are serving the Lord.” “I’ll be happy when we have enough finances.” “I’ll be happy when we’re out of debt.” “I’ll be happy when… fill in the blank.” We all have our things. And they change every season too. Because difficulties come up because we live in a world.
Hope deferred makes a heart sick…
But during that time, I remember really meditating on the scripture, “hope deferred makes the heart grow sick.” Because I knew in that time I was dealing with this sickness of my heart. I felt broken hearted. I felt like, why is this taking so long? God, what am I doing wrong? Why aren’t you moving? Why isn’t this happening? And what does the scripture mean? Because I feel this, and you put this in here for a reason. But what does this mean? Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick.
And then I’ll read the out of the actual Bible here. “Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12.
My hope was in the wrong place…
And so I just started digging into that because I’m like, I feel that that resonates with me. I do feel like my heart is sick. It’s just heavy. Like I feel like I’ve been in this battle for a long time. And what He showed me was that my hope was in the wrong place. When our hope is in Jesus, it will never be deferred. If my hope was in the house that was deferred for six years, and so if my hope was in that, then my heart would grow sick because my hope was expecting that thing. But if I could change my sight to where my hope is in the Lord, and I know He is going to take care of us. I don’t love this season that we’re in, but I know that He has me. I know that He is going to take care of me and I trust Him. I know that He has a plan. Even though none of this makes sense to me, even though I’m not loving the season right now, He still has a plan.
And so I’m just going to read some scriptures about how like our hope in Jesus, it’s like an anchor. And we’ve heard that before. Hope is like an anchor. And it holds you through those storms of life. And so our hope can’t be in our circumstances. Our hope has to be in Jesus and what He’s doing. And so like right now in the world, you turn on the news, you need an anchor. Because it is stormy out there right now. And Jesus has to be the anchor. It can’t be who the President is. It can’t be what bills are passed. I mean, we pray about those things. We declare those things, absolutely. But our hope has to be in Jesus. And we have to know that we know that He’s got us. He has a plan. He’s on the throne and we can’t be shaken. When that is where our hope is.
If our hope is in circumstances, we will be shaken…
Our hope will be deferred and our heart will grow sick. And you hear of a lot of people dealing with depression and anxiety, and it’s because their hope is in something else. Their hope is in maybe an unsure future. Am I going to have enough money to raise my children? Am I going to have… Those are all important things. But that can’t be where our hope is. Our hope has to be in God. If we keep our eyes on Him, all these things will be added unto us.
So I’m just going to read some scripture over you. And I think it’d be good to bolster our faith. Let’s bolster our spirits. And once we do that, we will go into prayer. But I think it’s good to remind ourselves, to remind our souls, especially so much more as we see the day coming and the world around us looks a little scary out there if you just are putting your eyes on the world. But we know that God has a plan and that makes it not scary. Perfect love casts out fear. We know that He loves us. He’s going to take care of us. We don’t have to fear.
Jeremiah 17:7–8 in the Amplified says…
“Most blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confidence the Lord is. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river and it shall not see and fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.” So where is our hope? In the Lord. Our hope and our confidence is in the Lord.
Hebrews 6:10–12 in the Passion translation…
“For God the faithful one is not unfair. How can He forget the beautiful work you have done for him? He remembers the love you demonstrate as you continually serve His beloved ones for the glory of His name. But we long to see you passionately advance until the end and you find your hope fulfilled. So don’t allow your hearts to grow dull or to lose your enthusiasm but follow the example of those who fully receive what God has promised because of their strong faith and patient endurance.”
