Hope defined

Someone asked me recently to define 'hope,' here is what I came up with. I pray you find Hope from it...

Hope...

When I first used to think of hope, i used to think it was something you did when you 'hoped' for something.

Like you hoped for the best for a situation, whether its for you or someone else. It's hope in the process and outcome...that everything will be okay.

That someone will get healthy.

Someone will get the job.

And so on.

So I wished people hope and, in turn, had hope in God. You know, as many people do. It was still a "good" thing, I mean a impactful thing. Then we had a sermon a couple weeks ago about 'hope' during the hopeless times. (This sermon and the Louie Giglio sermon about Hope are pretty good)

He spoke out of Matthew 9:18-26. About the man with the dead daughter and the woman with the 12 years of sickness. When the pastor spoke of these 2 people in the sermons, he said they had Hope. NOT hope in the process or even the outcome of their problems, but HOPE in the One who provides/creates the Hope.

Read what the people said in the scripture...

The man: My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and SHE WILL LIVE. The woman: If I only touch his cloak, I WILL BE HEALED.

They KNEW; KNEW that God was going to do that if they had faith and hope in Him. The KNEW it, didn't second guess it, they did it. The moved, they didn't stand still and question whether God would work, would move, would heal, would act. They had HOPE in the Hopemaker. So many times we say we have hope in God and we should. But we have hope that this will happen or won't happen. We simply don't have Hope in Him, because regardless of the outcome or the process, He knows what is best for us and has His and our best interest in mind. So to have hope, brings hope....if that makes sense.

Well, I went to my car after church and dialogued with God about this. The woman in the scripture was sick for 12 years. I asked God, what is holding me back from You, and putting complete Hope, Faith and Trust in Him. Well it was something that stemmed back to high school...some 12 years ago! I had given aspects to Him about this desire, but never the WHOLE picture.

When I did, gave it allllll to Him, that's when things started happening. It almost felt like God was saying, "I've been waiting for a long while for you to do this, lets get started." Like God was waiting beside me all this time as I just pouted and yelled like a kid in a grocery store. I was moving in a direction toward He wanted to me, but kept wandering off, dragging my feet, getting caught up in life.

There are so so so many verses on Hope. I need to read up on those some more. I think I will end it with the one Giglio said, and it doesn't even have Hope in it.

Its John 16:33

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Now that's Hope in the Hopemaker.