Author: Highlighting Hope

We highlight or underline in books what we have found to be profound and worth remembering. We highlight or underline so that as we flip back through the pages, those statements will grab our attention in order that our minds may dwell upon its’ riches once again.
Highlighting Hope was inspired by Hebrews 10:23 which says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” In the midst of a difficulty, I read this verse and it gripped my heart. Although this storm was big in appearance, it was miniscule in the presence of my Savior. I prayed for months on end for God to remove this thorn in the flesh, and when it remained present, I knew that God was calling me to trust Him and to hold unswervingly to this hope that can only be found in Him.
Proverbs 13:12 tells us that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Our need for hope is great and yet that is exactly what Jesus offers, and He longs to meet this need in our lives! He is our living hope and the beauty here is that this is just the beginning! Colossians 1:5 tells us that faith and love springs up from this hope that Jesus offers!
As I have sought hope and have watched God “highlight” all around me this hope that I have in Him, I have come to realize that hope is just the starting point. As we read about, see, and experience His hope, it is a means in which He produces a greater faith and love in our lives! Praise God for His exponential work continuously being played out in us!

One of the verses my daughter learned in school is, “Hear and increase in learning.” Proverbs 1:5. An abundance of wisdom resides in that little verse, and as I have heard her recite it over and over again, I have been reminded of how important it is to take the time to listen.

Here recently, I have made a greater effort in really listening to those around me, and take to heart the stories others take the time to share. A story shared is piece of someone’s heart that’s being given out and beholds great value. As I have taken greater strides in listening, I have been able to see how much we really all have in common. We have all known happiness, sorrow, acceptance, rejection, fulfillment, emptiness, being misunderstood …etc; and all of these have been acquired through various life experiences. But in the midst of our difficulties, can we all say that we have experienced true joy and peace?

Hardships do come. The size of the hardships may vary, but they do come, often leaving wounds that require time to heal and a course of treatment. But, how we treat our wounds makes all the difference in how well those wounds heal, and improperly cared for can result in something far worse than what you started with.

Our hearts are deceitful, especially when pain is present, making us more likely to respond to our hardships foolishly. When we are heavy with burdens, God, our Heavenly Father, lovingly extends an invitation to come and give those over to Him (Matthew 11:28). Choosing to obey and follow God’s call to come to Him when our hearts are hurting and our wounds are so deep, results in a great blessing and sets us on the path of true healing.

Regardless of the burden you carry today, regardless of how deep your wounds, we have a God who heals, who extends to us a surpassing peace, blesses us with joy in the storm, and bestows upon us His constant presence in our lives! Therefore, our wounded hearts are best cared for when we lay them down at the feet of Jesus; and when we lay them there and leave them there, we can be sure that we will experience His healing, His joy, and His peace!

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3

Do you remember the “but God” moments of your life? One mother’s day, my husband got me a charm bracelet. Each charm was thoughtfully selected and had a meaning, which made his gift that much more special. He was explaining each charm to me and he comes to the one one that was supposed to be my birthstone (November), yet it was the wrong color. I looked up at my husband with a somewhat confused look, and he says, “This birthstone represents the month of March. The month that you gave your life to Christ! I got you the birthstone that represents the month of you going from death to life!”
My heart was truly overcome with joy and gratitude over this amazing gift from my husband. He had given me a beautiful reminder of a major “but God” moment in my life! I remember that day and that moment so vividly, as if it were yesterday. God rescued me at a point in my life when I was the messiest and yet in His love, grace, mercy, and kindness, He met me where I was at and began the process of cleaning me up!
Ephesians 2:3-5 says,
“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. BUT because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

God’s word has the ability to be hidden in the heart of a believer AND live there richly!
God’s word lights our paths so that our view is clear, providing us with trusted directions for life!
God’s word is living and actively working where it dwells- and that’s in us!
God’s word is sharper than any double edged sword, helping to remove all that is detrimental to a life that’s pleasing to God!
God’s word offers unwaivering truth in a world full of chaos and confusion!
God’s word sanctifies us so that we can become more like Jesus with each passing day!
God’s word is eternal, dependable, and continuously relevant in a world of uncertainty!
God’s word is life!
Time in God’s word is never waisted and never goes unused in our lives. All that we long for and seek after can be found in one place! When we seek Him, we find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts! Look at all the beauty that unfolds as we do this with sincere hearts! What an abundance of grace and love that God has given us His word to go to and rest in daily!

“Stop counting the dead branches” … This is the gentle whisper I received from the Lord today.
Life in Christ is a continual process of God constantly pruning us, but the purpose of Him doing so is not for us to keep count of how many dead, lifeless limbs He’s removed. Any good gardener who gives constant care to a tree partakes in the pruning process, but he does so to make the tree beautiful by constantly removing what is detrimental to its’ health and to allow for new, healthy growth. He doesn’t leave the pile of dead branches at the base of the tree as a memorial but rather he removes them to never be seen again. And guess what? God is our good and gracious gardener! He is removing what’s dead in our lives in order to make us more like Him!
This is a great act of God’s love and grace displayed in our lives! Jesus’ sacrifice is our covering and therefore God remembers our sin no more! As we embrace His act of constant pruning in our lives, we need to remember that He isn’t leaving the dead branches at our feet to keep count of them… He, instead, is removing them from sight and is casting them as far as the east is from the west. So stop counting the dead branches… God Himself remembers them no more!

At the end of every week, a folder gets sent home with my son with graded work and other important papers. Last night, I finally sat down to look through his folder and quickly discovered a few things I needed to go over with him. Math is his favorite subject and he tends to do pretty well in this area, but this week’s grade seemed to tell a bit of a different story. After having three years of homeschool experience with him, I’d say that I am pretty familiar with his work habits- good and bad. As I examined his math sheet a bit further, it was very evident that his grade reflected not his inability to do the work correctly, but rather it revealed that he just didn’t pay attention to the details and he didn’t read the math questions carefully. So as I began doing my “mama thing” and started spouting out words of wisdom for him to live by, God began to doing His “God thing” and placed that mirror of self -reflection right in front of me.
Just as I was telling my son, “If it is written, it’s meant to be read. And since it’s meant to be read, then it should be read carefully. And it’s okay to read it more than once,” the Holy Spirit began that grand work of conviction. In that very moment, God pierced my heart and said, “Just as My word has been written, it’s meant to be read. And since it’s meant to be read, it should be read carefully. And it’s okay to read it more than once.”
As I sat, heavy with conviction, 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 came to mind. “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” My mind began to be filled with question after question as I began my self- evaluation. How high of a regard do I really have for carefully reading the very words breathed by God? How often do I just skim the pages searching for the parts that I like instead of lingering in the difficult and the hard to swallow parts? How often do I go to God’s word to be corrected, taught, and equipped for His good work? And the last one stung a little… As I have this new found love for writing and sharing the hope God gives us, I even had to ask myself, how often do I go to God’s word only in search of my next writing topic?
God’s holy word is meant to be handled with intentional care, and just as we are to know God’s word, we also meant to be transformed by it. It is a gracious gift that God has given us His word to be at our disposal. He spoke these very words to be written, and because these words are written, they are meant to be read and read with utmost care and intentions- definitely more than once!
“My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.” Proverbs 4:20-22

Tears continued to flow down my daughter’s face as I began the process of laying her down for nap. As her need for rest was great today, it was met with an even greater resistance. Thankfully, God was gracious to supply me the needed patience to sing softly to her, as I rubbed her back, until her tears grew more and more faint, and finally silent. In my experience, getting my children down for a nap is easiest when I am able to lay them down the moment I sense that they are tired. But this is the real world, and it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes it goes too far, making caving into a posture of rest much more difficult.
Over the years, I have envied my children during nap time. Here they are exhausted and someone is having to beg them to go to sleep?! And here I am, a tired Mama, wishing someone was telling me to go lay down and go to sleep, and no begging would be necessary! Although our children may resist it, we know they need the rest, and we do what we can to make sure they get it.
God knows that we need rest too. Sometimes we go too far before actually caving into our posture of rest as well! We know that when we are tired and weary, He is the perfect place to go and lay our troubles down, and yet we still hold onto them with clinched fists. We are no different than our own children in that, the more tired we become, them more difficult we become!
Do you believe in the peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds? If so, knowing that this is the peace that God is able to give, as well as a guarded heart and mind, leads to a life at rest.
Do you believe that God will supply all of your needs? If so, knowing that there is nothing that is impossible with God and knowing that God provides, leads to a life at rest.
Do you believe that God is a God of all comfort? If so, then knowing that in trials and difficulties that God will meet you where you are with compassion and comfort, leads to a life at rest.
Do you believe that Jesus’ sacrifice is enough? If so, then knowing that Jesus’ death and resurrection defeats sin and then in turn can lavish you in His grace and forgiveness, leads to a life at rest. If you find yourself tired today, then there is a voice that is calling you to a place of rest!
“In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him (Jesus), and His place of rest will be glorious.” Isaiah 11:10

“Mom, there’s just something that I am struggling to understand about God. How is it that He has no beginning and no end? I mean, how is that even possible?!” Those are just a few of the hard to answer questions my seven year old son has thrown my way lately as he wrestles to understand who God really is! You, like my son, may have found yourself asking some hard to answer questions about God. I believe it’s in those hard to answer questions that our faith really grows as we seek to find the answers in the proper place- God’s word. The truth is, there are things revealed to us about God through His word that blow our finite minds that we will never fully understand. Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”

Having a correct understanding of who God is plays a tremendously important role in every aspect of our lives. It affects our faith and trust in Him, how we pray, how we walk through victories, how we walk through storms, and how we persevere in our daily living. I love what J. C. Ryle writes in his book “A Call to Prayer”:

“The only way to be really happy in such a world as this, is to be ever casting all our cares on God. It is trying to carry their own burdens which often makes believers sad.
If they will tell their troubles to God, he will enable them to bear them as easily as Samson did the gates at Gaza. If they are resolved to keep them to themselves, they
will find one day that the very grasshopper is a burden. There is a friend ever waiting to help us, if we will unbosom to him our sorrow- a friend who pitied the poor and sick and sorrowful, when he was upon earth- a friend who knows the heart of man,…That friend is Jesus Christ. The way to be happy is to be always opening our hearts to him.”

Are you finding that the very “grasshopper” is a burden in your life? How often are you carrying a sorrow that Jesus Himself has asked for you to give to him? How often are you resolved to just “figure it out” rather than taking it to God in prayer? I find myself guilty of carrying things that Jesus Christ Himself has asked for me to lay at His feet and bathe it in prayer. If we could truly grasp who we are praying to and the fact that He is able to do abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20, 21) how much differently our lives would look. If you find yourself weary today, look to the One who is able to take your burdens and give you the rest you truly need.

“I lift my eyes unto the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121: 1, 2

Today was just a typical day around here for my family. I awoke to two kiddos eager to be up and at ‘em just a few minutes past six. I, of course am dragging myself out of bed and I am dying to make my way into the kitchen for that glorious cup of coffee! All along the way, my kids are happily and energetically hopping along right at my heels making their many food and drink requests. The minute our feet hit the floor in the Capps household, it’s go time!

Finally a moment came for a breather while my son started his dictionary work. I decided to use this as an opportunity to jump on my stationary bike for a few minutes of exercise. I always set my workouts to interval training because I know, left up to me, I would never have the challenging exercise I really need. And, man, I am always relieved when I am back down to a lower level of resistance!

Today as I was biking, I was really focusing on keepings my speed up at every level and I noticed that my speed was really at its highest when I FELT like it was at its worst. The resistance would drop way low making it super easy to pedal, allowing my knees pop up and down about as fast as popcorn popping in a pot! Although I felt faster, my speed was always lower by about 2 mph when biking at this level. As the resistance started to go back up again, I felt like I was doing an awful job keeping up the pace, but my biking speed was always highest when the resistance was at its highest.

I noticed that I was really performing at my best when my workout felt the hardest and when I felt like I was performing my worst because it was HARD. When my efforts were paired with the right amount of resistance it was the dynamic duo. As I thought about this, I remembered James chapter one where it talks about the trials we encounter in life and how we can consider them a joy when we face them. Life is not easy and trials come in all shapes and sizes and they are HARD. Trials, life lived at greater resistance, do not feel joyful. We all have junk come our way that we would rather not deal with and instead we’d rather hit the big ‘PASS’ button. But something about these moments of resistance and difficulty are powerful for those of us in Christ because of the great work God is doing in us in those moments. The person following Jesus and also walking through a trial seem to encounter a dynamic duo.

At this point in life you may feel as if you are running the race and it feels as if you are doing so horribly, but one thing I have learned is that our feelings do a great job of deceiving us more often than not. The trial you are in may be difficult and you feel as if it is all that you can do to keep going, but know that God is doing a great work in your life right now in that difficulty. He’s not waiting until the trial is over to a good work in you!
Now, I do undoubtedly know that if I had continued upping the resistance to higher levels I would have gotten to a point of being unable to pedal, but that’s the beauty of God’s grace. God never gives us more than we can handle, but He allows enough to produce the beautiful fruit He so desires to see displayed in our lives and to finish the great work in you that He started.

When you hit the path with greater resistance, you learn to lean on truth rather than feelings and you see the presence and work of God at such a greater capacity! So keep running the race with perseverance! God’s doing so much more than you know and the beauty is, it’s all for His glory!

Over the past 16 years that my husband and I have been married, my father in law has taken a lot of joy in telling me about the time that he and my husband, Jasper, were at the grocery store. I believe Jasper was 2 or 3 at the time, and he was insistent that he was going to carry the gallon of milk. My father in law placed the gallon of milk on the floor and watched as his little boy tried with all his might to lift the gallon of milk.
After several tries, and no success, Jasper finally looked to his father and said, “Hebby Daddy. Hebby Daddy. Help me.” With a laugh, my father in law gladly picked up the gallon of milk that his young son was unable to carry- and honestly, it wasn’t meant for him to carry.

As I think about this story, I was drawn to Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I think we can all imagine how cute it would be to watch a determined 2 or 3 year old try to carry a gallon of milk to the front of the store, especially because we all know it wouldn’t happen. Jasper was not physically able to carry that milk, and as long as he stood there trying to carry something that he was never meant to carry, he remained stagnant.

Sometimes, I think we also make the same attempts that mirror a 2/3 year old child trying to carry a gallon of milk. How often do we try to carry things that were never meant for us to carry and remain stagnant, instead of stopping and saying, Heavenly Father, today I give to you what I cannot bear, what I cannot carry.”

We were not made to carry all the burdens this life has, no matter how big or small they may be, and Jesus tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest. The solution is quite simple, but one that requires the faith to say, “Heavy Father. Heavy Father. Please help me.”