Welcome To ToniRay Writes

I’ve had many occasions when I thought I had no hope at all. I would wonder what could possibly be in the way of having this massive amount of hope I felt I needed. Day after day, I wrestled with it, convinced there was something huge I was missing. I remember a conversation with a friend where I mentioned how often we say, “I hope this,” or “I hope that.” He responded by saying he doesn’t really hope for things, yet in the same breath, he said he hoped there wouldn’t be traffic on his drive home. That moment stayed with me. Without realizing it, we unconsciously declare our hopes every single day. Sometimes even in negative ways — hoping something doesn’t go wrong, hoping we don’t fail, hoping things don’t fall apart. So as I continued on my journey of uncovering my so-called “hope issue,” I began to realize something freeing: I wasn’t hopeless at all. What I was lacking wasn’t hope — it was understanding. In Psalm 42 :5, David speaks to his own soul and says, “Why are you cast down,...

There was a scripture I had been struggling with all week. I kept beating myself up because I could read it, visualize it, even feel that it was meant for me—yet I could not fully understand it. I couldn’t reach that aha moment where everything finally clicks. Over and over again, I racked my brain because deep down, I knew it resonated with my life. I stayed on this path of study, comparing scripture with scripture, asking myself what it was that I was “missing.” I decided I was going to sit with it—no matter how long it took. So every day that week, I made time to study that same passage, hoping the light bulb would come on and not just flicker. Last night, as I prepared to finally relax, I grabbed my Bible and said, Let’s get to it. I was determined to solve the mystery that had held me all week. I turned to the page and read the scripture again…and again. Still nothing. For a moment, I thought maybe the Most High wasn’t ready to reveal this to me. But I caught that thought qu...