How to Hope

Wednesday, May 6, 2015




How I wish life had turned out differently. I didn't want the loss. I didn't want the conflict. I didn't want the awkwardness. Yet, it is exactly what I ended up with. Each day I feel the disappointment of things not turning out the way I had hope. These days I am having to hang on to a different type of hope. A hope that doesn't disappoint...

So many times we put our hope in people, things, and circumstances that leave us lacking. They disappoint. And sometimes they even devastate. Our hearts can't handle the failures of other people and circumstances. And there are times when our hearts can't handle our own failures. So we need to hope in One that will never disappoint. Here is how I am learning to do this daily when the world around me is full of disappointments.

Realize He loves you no matter what. Our circumstances are never indicators of His love. Each day I remind myself that no matter how disappointed I am in a person or event His love remains. It will stay in the good times and the the bad.

Hope in God by spending time with Him. The last few years I have had to spend more time with Him to regain a sense of hope. Life had devastated me so much that I didn't really know where to put myself back together again. I felt hopeless, but the more time I spent with Him the more hopeful I became.

Accept reality. Micah 7 recommends that we don't put our complete trust in friends, neighbors, and even our family. Proverbs 23 talks about money sprouting wings and flying away. The reality of life is that at some point what we hoped for doesn't become a reality. Relationships die. Money really does fly away {or at least it feels that way}. Health fails. The promotion passes us by. Rejection shows up before we know what hit us. The sooner we can realize that this world won't satisfy the better off we will be.

Understand that in the disappointment there is divine appointment. Every disappointment has glimmers of hope. God can use the worst that we experience to bring out some of the best circumstances in our lives. Actually, I have learned that when disappointment hits it is because God has something different and potentially better in mind.  The trick is to go on a "scavenger hunt" looking for how God is working out the details.

Are you in need of some hope? Check out these Verses of Hope.

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