Hope is a small word that packs a huge punch. Hope plays a larger role in my life than I have been aware of.
For the past couple of weeks I have found myself to be easily frustrated, quick to be unedited in my words, and easily discouraged. This is not a fun place to sit in or experience. As I have thought about it, hope, or a lack of hope, seems to be at the root of my issues.
I have found that hope is a catalyst to standing firm when all else fails and falls away. Hope can keep one from falling away.
Proverbs states, “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” It really does. When we put hope on hold discouragement is not far off. When I stop hoping in something I have placed pressure on myself to make something happen. I have definitely failed at most things when choosing this mentality.
Job states it so well as he wrestles with his own stubbornness, “Why do I put myself in jeoprady and take my life in my hands?”
So many things are rooted in hope: joy, strength, endurance, and perseverance. Hebrews describes “faith is being sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see.” My faith has everything to do with how I hope. And my lack of faith has everything to do with how I choose to rely on what is seen.
Paul talks about hope being attributed to the development of character in the time of experienced suffering.
Hope takes me out of myself and fixes my eyes on the one greater then myself; the one who promises plans for me. Hope gives breath and strength to your dreams and desires. Hope builds character, faith, and dependence on God. Hope is powerful.
Paul also states, “for in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
I have not been waiting patiently in my hope. I have grown in discouragement and frustration. I desire to fix my hope on him.It is time to hope again.
Take one million….and action…
wise, wise words.
“And my lack of faith has everything to do with how I choose to rely on what is seen.”
mm. I need to marinate me in some of dat hope stuff!
you got hope coop! you have some serious faith too!
hope feels further away than it’s been in a long time. it’s discouraging.
and i keep thinking that so many of the psalmist’s challenges say “put your hope in God”. not “find hope in God” or “take hope in God”. but “put hope in God.” and then i just sigh in frustration and fatigue because i don’t have the energy to take the active role he’s telling me i need to take.
i need to be more intentional about placing my hope in God… first, though, i’m praying for the strength i’ll need to do that. cause my tank’s at empty.
and it’s so hard to renew that sense of hope when i feel like my hope has been disappointed. a lot. and i know He promises that “this hope does not disappoint”, which means my hope wasn’t anchored in Him like it needed to be. but it’s hard to keep hoping when it doesn’t seem to … do anything.
so i guess it’s really a faith issue. (and like you said, the two are undeniably linked.)
praying—again—for Him to overcome my unbelief.
faith and hope hard ones. lots of areas to apply it to. sucky. take one million for us both.
HEY, thanks for this! I’ve been struggling for the past couple of weeks too, and it never occurred to me that it was from a lack of hope, but now that I’m in a place of having hope in abundance, I can definitely see this as related to the prolonged snippy, snotty, selfish, and destructive funk.
I like what you said Alece, about PUTTING my hope in God. Hope is active. It’s a verb. Ah, things to ponder.