hope

1. a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
2. a feeling of trust.

In reading the definition of hope, can you honestly say that you still have hope in God to answer the promises He’s given or shown to you?  If your answer is no, I first want to commend you for being honest with yourself and with God!  My prayer is that after reading this newsletter, hope arises deep within you to believe that God will come through for you the way He has promised you!  And if you were able to answer the question above with a yes, I am super stoked for you! I still want you to read this newsletter to tuck away in your heart in case there’s a moment where hopelessness tries to come knocking at your door!  You’ll be prepared and won’t open that door when it does try to knock!

Many of us may have received prophetic words or even received visions from God on specific dreams and ideas that he wants us to pursue for our future.  Many of us can be experiencing a season that conflicts the promises that God has given us in His word.  And as we watch time pass second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, we can feel discouraged.  We can feel disappointed.  We can feel hopeless.  But that’s not God’s intention for us at all!  God desires for His children to be a hopeful people.  Abba Father wants us to be filled with expectation and anticipation to see Him manifest every spoken word over our lives.

Hebrews 11:1 makes it pretty clear that in order for faith to function, hope has to be present.  Faith is the substance of what we hope for!  So when we walk around hopeless, how can God’s promises be displayed in our lives?  The enemy’s tactic is to make us all feel hopeless and like time has ran out and our dreams are long gone and over.  But I’m here to encourage you to allow hope to rise again!  I’m here to tell you to dream big again!  To believe again!  To trust in God again!

You may be asking “how can I do this?  How can I use practical steps to ensure that my hope remains elevated when I’m faced in a hopeless situation?”  Let’s read Romans 4:16 & 18 MSG:

16 This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift…18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”

This scripture above just excites me to my core!  Abraham is such a great example of what it looks like to keep hope alive when what we see looks contrary to the promises God has given us.  Here’s a quick back story of Abraham’s life.  God basically gives him a promise at age 75 that he will be a Father to many nations!  Sounds great right?!  I’m sure Abraham was so happy to hear this news…but if only it were that simple!  Abraham and his wife Sarah did not see the manifestation of this promise until 25 years later in their old age – Abraham 100 years old; Sarah 90 years old.  In those 25 years, Abraham could have easily lost hope, given up his faith and dismiss God and His promise!  But Abraham didn’t do either of those options! Instead he held onto God and was rewarded for his faith!  Let’s dissect the passage above and see how Abraham kept onto his hope:
 

  1. “Trust God and His way, and simply embrace Him and what He’s doing.” This is super important guys!  So many times we see the delay and/or opposition, and rather than trusting God and His process, we push Him away.  We can build offenses and just doubt God’s existence in the process.  But I want to challenge us to CHOOSE to trust God beyond what is happening around us and to run even closer to Him when we are living contrary to the promise.  Yes at times things will not go the way we expected or desired, but that doesn’t mean that your promise is null and void.  As uncomfortable as the season may feel, embrace God’s process and plan.  Everything that is great does not come easy!  The Lord is developing us and maturing us in these times!  This isn’t the time to give up hope and push God aside.  Instead run after Him, stay at His feet longer, and love him even stronger!  
  2. “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.”  Man oh man, this is super hard to do and takes being intentional about where you set your gaze on a daily basis.  I can only imagine how hard it was for Abraham to keep on believing and trusting God for all those years.  I’m sure at times doubt crept in.  In fact, the word shows us that his wife Sarah chuckled when she heard of the promise herself that she would have a son at 90 years old.  They were human too, it happens!  But where we decide to fixate our lens is what matters! Yes at times we may experience some doubtful moments and feelings of uncertainty.  We may even chuckle like Sarah did when we think of what God has shown us and the current state of our lives.  But we can’t stay in this posture!  Abraham teaches us that even when things looked hopeless, he chose to believe anyways; in hope against hope, he believed and held closely to what God had promised Him.  He didn’t choose to live life based off of what his natural eye could see, instead he shifted his lens toward a spiritual realm, moving according to what God had said!  And though it took many years for the promise to come forth, Abraham teaches us that delay truly isn’t denial!


So what has God said to you? What has He promised you? What dreams and aspirations has He placed inside of your heart? I want you to be inspired to hope again, to dream again, to believe again! If God has given you a promise, jump into it with hope, faith and full of expectation. Don’t you ever think for a second that God has forgotten you and the word spoken over your life. Let hope arise in you in this moment! Begin to speak to God about those desires, dreams and visions that He has given you. Trust God and what He’s doing! Embrace God and His ways!  In hope, believe that God will display His promise in His perfected time. Let hope arise in you again!
Prayer: 

Father God, I thank you for your beautiful children reading this prayer.  I thank you for their life, their existence, for their very being.  I pray they understand their worth, their beauty and their value to this earth and your kingdom.  I pray they knows that their never forgotten and are truly loved by you.  May every promise, word, vision and dream placed by you be revived in their hearts again!  I pray that hope arises internally like never before.  May their trusts in you be unwavering as they stand upon your firm foundation.  May their gaze be set upon you and not upon what they see.  May they be immovable, unbreakable, unstoppable as they trust you in the process.  I pray their level of intimacy grows as they embrace your process and what you are doing.  May hope arise and be ever increasing.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen!

I love you more than you know! Xoxo  
 Until next time…