Keeping Hope Alive with Grace Fox

How do you keep hope alive when things get stormy?

Today's guest, Grace Fox, is a career missionary, a member of the First 5 writing team for Proverbs 31 Ministries, a co-host of the podcast “Your Daily Bible Verse,” and the author of 12 books including her new devotional, Keeping Hope Alive: Devotions for Strength in the Storm.

It's not a matter of "if" things get stormy, but "when." Grace shares the importance of preparing for crisis before the storms of life hit. 

Fox recommends studying scripture, connecting with healthy people in community, listening to praise music, worship, and developing the discipline of practicing the presence of the Lord daily. 

We discuss the struggle to experience the presence of God during times when we're suffering. Grace shares the value of lament and praying through Psalms during times of pain and crisis. She explains that acknowledging our pain instead stuffing it is healthy. Rather than showing a weakness of faith, pouring our struggles out to God in prayer can strengthen our faith.

Grace emphasizes the need to express our pain. We note how Psalm 23 shows us how we don't skip the valley of grief, but can find strength from God's presence with us when we suffer. Grace shares how God's presence in our times of struggle can give us hope.

Fox encourages listeners to recognize lies and replace them with God's truth from scripture. 

Grace shares a story of facing a dangerous situation with her houseboat as an illustration of how important it is to make sure we don't leave an opening for the enemy to attack us. Sometimes we leave a small crack into which the enemy can pry into our lives and attack us. She notes unforgiveness, unconfessed sin, and fear as examples of openings that leave us vulnerable to the enemy.

We discuss the importance of catching negative thought patterns and resisting them as soon as possible.  Everyone has fearful or other negative thoughts, but we can choose to stop and shift them so we can minimize our vulnerability to the enemy's attack strategy to use them against us.

We explore how to use the attack of fearful thoughts as an opportunity to choose to trust the Lord with our concerns.

Grace shares the illustration of a crossing guard's stop sign as a way to remember we can halt our negative thoughts and change the direction we move afterward.

We discuss how we can find hope when stuck in a place of hopelessness and darkness. Fox emphasizes the critical role our self-talk plays in the times when we are experiencing crisis and suffering, especially when hopelessness sinks in. She shares her own personal experience with overcoming moments of hopelessness during a time when an injury left her immobile.

Grace recommends praying through our times of crisis and choosing to thank God for his presence. Even when we are not in a situation we can feel thankful about, we can thank God that he is with us.

We talk about choosing to pray for support for the present, the next few moments, perhaps, when crisis prevents us from considering hope for a longer stretch of time.

Grace explains the original meaning of the scripture about the sufficiency of grace as centering on the present. 

Fox urges listeners to put hope in an anchor that will not shift or disappoint us. The only anchor that can do this is Jesus.

Connect with Grace Fox at https://www.gracefox.com/ or on Facebook at gracefoxauthor. Check out her podcast, Your Daily Bible Verse, wherever you choose to listen to content.

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