Sunday Scripture

Romans 15:13 (AMP)

13 May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

Experience.  I have been faced with that as of late.  Has it taught me anything?  Last year I walked through a new door after God shut one.  And I learned a few things from my experience.  Sometimes we don't realize that until we are faced with it yet again.  But what will you do with it?  I have learned that you do the hard work now, or you do it later, but rest assured, you will do it.  And so this verse today, this one, reminded me, our belief in what we choose comes from our experience.  This can be from the good and the not so awesome.  But I am finding that when I do make a step in the right direction, sometimes it comes through walking in something hard.  I can become stuck or detained by something that comes my way, or I can go ahead and do the hard work and move past it.  And through this, because of experience, I am filled with His joy and His peace.  Now feeling His joy doesn't mean that I am feeling all warm and fuzzy because of the choice I had to make...no...it's actually the opposite.  But when I woke this morning, I knew I had made a step in the right direction.  I knew the hard choice was indeed the right choice.  Because despite my feelings, I am filled with His joy and His peace.  That not so evident, deep underground knowledge of His truth.  The Water that carves out new paths as it grows.  Thankful.