Hope 4 You is released!

Mar 5, 2011 by Lancia E. Smith

"Hope 4 You" book cover

This past year I had the honor of writing a detailed autobiographical piece that was published in Hope 4 You, a book by Carole Lewis written in collaboration with Carolyn Curtis. Hope 4 You is the newest edition in the First Place 4 Health ministry series. The piece I wrote is in the chapter “Prayer Revives Hope” and covers an essential element to understanding my life’s story “ my foster parents’ faithfulness in praying for me throughout my life and the astonishing impact their prayers have had. As the title suggests, the overarching theme of the book covers two subjects near and dear to me, the powerful role of prayer and maintaining hope in our lives. It is a privilege to be included in this work. I heartily recommend it not simply because my story is in it but because the book on the whole is replete with powerful stories of God’s redemptive work, and I believe it will encourage you.

My piece in Hope 4 You is entitled Prayer Gives Hope. Here’s an excerpt.

“Even though my parents and I didn’t speak for several years, the Lord knew our relationship would survive and one day even thrive. God led them the right way, for their sakes and ultimately for mine, too. Their adherence to what was right rather than trying to accommodate me made real and lasting change possible. They chose life and by their actions put that same choice before me.

“I cannot adequately express how deep a debt I owe to them for this. The separation between us which occurred during that period God later restored to the original sweetness we first had together and then to something so much richer in the past five years (nearly thirty-five years later). Today it’s as though I was their natural-born child, and we’d always been intertwined. Truly God has done something in each of us that defies all our expectations!

“During the worst years of my early twenties when things looked so hopeless for me, the Lord told my mother that I would have a happy end “ I would be happy in my forties and would be well. At that time in my development I didn’t believe I would live beyond my twenties, or at most maybe early thirties. That assurance from God to my mother became the most powerful agent against my demons, because she believed it and I believed it. It carried the power of God’s Word in a way that was living and effective. She and my dad prayed in faith accordingly.”

Smith, Lancia E. “Prayer Gives Hope.” Hope4you: God’s Plan for Your Health and Happiness. By Carole Lewis. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2010.

http://shop.cbn.com/cbn/item.Hope-4-You-Gods-Plan-for-Your-Health-and-Happiness-Lewis-Car.9780830755295.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Hope-You-Health-Happiness-First/dp/0830755292/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3