A New Hope

I have been thinking about hope for a while now. What is it? Why do we need it? Is it tangible? How do we use it in our daily lives.?

I don't mean to say it's my daily focus or anything even remotely like that. Just thinking about it.

What are we hoping for? Relationship. Work. Health. Children. Family. Money.

Time. Rest. Kindness. Mercy. The Lottery. The list can be endless and vastly different for each individual.

As a follower and lover of Jesus, I am called to put my hope in Him. That, as a broken individual can posse quite a challenge. How do I do that?

Trust. My Pastor in Seattle often says, "Any attempt at walking is walking." and "Try God on for size and see how He fits." I love these bold statements. It gives me permission and validates my feeble attempts of walking with God and trying Him on in my daily life.

So armed with the empowerment of these statements, I choose to try God in my life.

I choose to trust Him with my circumstances. I choose to put my circumstances into His hands and by doing this I am putting my hope in Him.

Sometimes my needs are dire, and time is of the essence, and I have to trust in His unfailing love to see me through. He becomes my only hope.

Other times it is a more long-term need or desire that can and has taken years to bring to fulfillment. I have to choose to trust in Him. To place my hopes into His hands.

How does that hope work its way into believing that He will bring things to pass?

It's in trying God on that this trust and faith grow. I choose to trust Him with my little circumstances and watch Him answer my cries, see Him lead me in His ways and bring about the answers and change my heart longs for. Each time I give over my worries and concerns to Papa (God) and I hope and trust Him there comes about a change in me and a deeper connection with Him.

Please don't misunderstand me. This is not a pathway to get everything you want out of life. Often as I give over my worries, dreams and circumstances to Papa, He answers in ways I could never imagine. It might even be no or not yet, wait. But my hope is never misplaced. Even when the answer is no, as I continue to trust and hope in Him, I discover that I am transformed (even by millimeters) towards His likeness.

I am broken and confess that I struggle with "Give it to God and Chill" sometimes.

I often find myself back at the alter taking back my worries and concerns that I just placed there a moment ago. I have good news. Jesus' love for me doesn't change because my trust is weak and my hope uncertain. It is that love of His for me that can bring me back, I choose to trust and hope in Him fully for my worries and cares.

Bask in His transforming love for you.

Romans 5:5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.