This past week I’ve slowly been reading through Romans. To be honest, of all the books in the New Testament that intimidate me, Romans and Revelation win hands down. But I don’t think God meant for His love letter to be intimidating to us, and so I’ve been going slow and steady and asking questions along the way.

When I read Romans 5 in The Message version of the Bible, I almost clapped my hands in delight. Y’all, it is just beautiful. It is real and honest and hard, but it is good.

We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! // Romans 5:2-5, MSG {emphasis mine}

There will be fights to fight and wars to wage and battles that require us to pick up our sword and shield. Trouble will come, problems will arise, relationship struggles will happen and worries are going to creep in.

We know it. We know it because He said so, but also because it’s the life we’re living.

There are a lot of reasons to fight right about now. You could fight injustice or fight for the last word. You can choose to fight until they say you were right or you can fight for your rights.

You can fight just to be fighting, and I think a lot of people have fallen into the camp.

Two years ago I found myself down on my knees, palms down on the cold, concrete floor of a gymnasium, asking God to give me hope. I had spent year fighting for a relationship, even when that just looked like fighting to stay open and kind in my mind. But I was exhausted. I was so past done with praying the same thing every day and seeing nothing change. And so I begged Him for what I believed I had run out of: hope.

And He told me to fight for it. To keep on coming and asking for more, to continue trusting that in asking for hope I was asking for Him and He never runs out.

Months later, God answered the prayer I spent years praying;

But here we are in October of 2015 and I’m praying another prayer, fighting for hope in another area, feeling hemmed in on every side and wondering if developing “passionate patience” is worth it.

I keep on showing up empty-handed but I’m showing up. And that’s something. But then He tells me to get the containers ready. He has so much in store, more than my wildest dreams and hopes and anything I could imagine, all my heart could hold.

I don’t see it yet – and maybe neither do you. Maybe you’ve been praying for years or maybe your pillow is wet each night from the tears that leak out. Maybe the very best you have to offer is not choosing not to chase after the last word or signing off of Facebook instead of clicking “post.”

But I’m going to keep fighting for hope and I’d like to invite you to join me. I won’t pretend to know His timetable, but I believe it is better than the one we would choose.

Let’s get the containers ready.