Day 7 of 31 Days of Hope: Keeping It Together

From YouVersion app

This December, OMF Literature would like to share with you 31 excerpts from 31 devotionals. In an age where people are desperate to cling to something or someone, we offer a message of encouragement, inspiration, and love from the One who is the eternal source of Hope.

Some days, it’s hard to keep it together. You try to maintain the right attitudes, to stoke your faith and expect God’s goodness, but circumstances seem to be winning the war of the heart. It feels like an enormous effort to keep the internal peace. And that effort sometimes takes energy we don’t have.

That’s okay. God understands those “I can’t keep it together” days. There’s always mercy and the strength available in His presence when we can find it. But what we really long for, and what He longs for on our behalf, is that we have the deep-down peace that isn’t an effort to “keep together” because it’s who we are. Sure, trying to maintain the right attitudes is important, but we want to get to the point where we don’t have to try. We want them to come naturally because our hearts have been transformed. We don’t want just to tell ourselves to be at peace; we want to actually have it.

God is getting us to that place. It’s a process; the attitudes of the Spirit don’t come to us instantly. But the more we soak in His Presence and fellowship with His Spirit, the more He fills us with hope and peace. At some point, these attitudes are no longer self-imposed. They overflow from within.

Seek that ideal. You won’t be perfect at it, but you can certainly grow in that direction. His Presence calms the storms within you without your having to keep a lid on them. He stirs up hope without having to manufacture it. He cultivates joy without your having to talk yourself into it. By faith, let Him overflow.

Lord, I want to overflow - naturally, through what You have done in me. I accept Paul’s prayer as my own. Give me hope, and keep me happy and full of peace as I believe.

This is an excerpt from One Year Experiencing God’s Presence by Chris Tiegreen. The devotional is available at OMF Lit Bookshops, our online store shop.omflit.com, PCBS and other bookshops nationwide for only P365.

This year, experience a closer relationship with God than ever before.
All of us long for God’s presence, and we sense it―occasionally. But there are times when it seems like something’s missing . . . like deep encounters with Him. Certainty that we have heard His voice. And a palpable sense that we are experiencing His presence every day.

Like no other writer can, Chris Tiegreen draws us deeper into real intimacy with our intensely relational God. In this deluxe LeatherLike edition, The One Year Experiencing God’s Presence Devotional will cultivate your sense of God’s presence in your life, help you learn to recognize His voice, and deepen your trust that He is “always ready to help” (Psalm 46:1) in every situation.