Hope in the Night (A 30-Day Reflection of the Word of God)

A Writer's Hope

What is hope?

When I first wrote "Hope in the Night", I intended it to be dramatic - making a fictional story through a series of letters about hope. But... what is hope, really? Why am I writing about an object for optimistic expectation when all I see is fear, despair, grief, depressing things in this world?

As I started to dig around to answer these questions, I realized in my heart that what I wanted to do was not what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to write something else: a written reflection.

Writing this book was hard without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Had I not humbled myself before God and accepted that I was really this hopeless, lost and in despair, I would not understand what I am reading and writing about. I had to wrestle with myself before I was able to write a single reflection since I was still under the bondage of my anxiety and fear. When I finally surrendered, God poured out His wisdom upon me and opened my eyes to see the beauty of His handiworks in my life.

There were also many times of skipping the days of posting a reflection, thinking I was not worthy of writing this. But God made me realize that I wrote this because of Jesus Christ. This didn't matter if I am unworthy, undeserving of the privilege for it was all because of Jesus Christ that I was given this opportunity.

I praise the LORD, my God, for this opportunity to share my reflections in this book. I thank Him for being patient with me, for being merciful and kind to me. I praise Him for letting me know Him deeper and drew me closer than before. I praise the Most High God, who taught me to hold unto Him. I praise Him for using me to reach out to each one of you, to comfort you through His Words;

I thank a special friend of mine for being patient with me, expounding my knowledge about God and providing additional insights about such topic, who also made sure I wasn't all about applications by teaching me to understand the background of each verses;

I thank and praise God for the salvation He offered freely to my family who accepted Him with all their hearts and soul. My loving mother, my gorgeous and talented sisters, and my smart and brilliant brother who now dedicated their talents and skills for the cause of Christ in spite of circumstances. It is my desire and prayer that each Christian will bring their families into the arms of Christ;

I thank the pastors, their wives, and friends in different churches who encouraged me to continue writing for the cause of Christ, and those who continually prayed for me and my family;

I thank my friends: Daniela, Angelica, Angelie, and Ladylenine, my four angels who were continuously praying for me during my battle against anxiety and until now that I have a steadfast recovery emotionally and spiritually. And to MoldedMind as my other inspiration in continuing this good fight of faith;

I thank and praise God for the lives of those Christian preachers I listened to and those Christian authors whom I made reference in this book. They helped me a lot in my journey as a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ since 2017.

To experience His goodness and His healing. To experience a kind of hope that the people in the Bible had encountered. To know where to anchor our faith and the faithfulness of God.

Biblical hope is the confidence on what God has promised, and the strength of hope is in His faithfulness. Jesus Christ must be the object of our hope, our confidence, our refuge, our strength.

"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:36)