Power of Hope

I often get asked what has brought such radical transformation to my life. 

Ten years ago, I could not have imagined starting a business, launching a ministry, or getting on stages to share God’s goodness. 

 When people ask what has brought such boldness into my life it is easy to say, “Jesus.” It is an incredible answer, and the more I dwell on it the more overwhelmed I get with its truth. While salvation is the single most important thing Jesus has offered me, He has given me so much more. Salvation is the ground floor for the vibrant life and friendship I now have with Jesus. When I think about whoJesus is to me, I realize it is His hope that has inspired me to this place. As a believer, I don’t have hope for my future because I have a positive outlook. I have hope because I am connected to a person, Jesus. 

If I am being vulnerable, my current life circumstances don’t give me a lot of reason to have hope. Bills are getting paid late, my body is exhausted from the amount of work I am doing, I am constantly having to consciously choose emotional and spiritual health as a priority. There has been more than one day in the last couple of months that I have broken down in tears.

 Hope is the antidote for disappointment, so what do I do in these moments? I connect to the source of hope Himself.“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” When I focus on what I am notseeing my heart is sick. However, when I focus on what God has said about me my hope is fueled. Whatever we focus on will influence our hope-o-meter. Need hope? Focus on God’s faithfulness.

 This is the kind of hope that changes not only our lives, but it changes culture. 

This week, I shared breakfast with a youth worker in Nashville who goes into juvenile detention centers and meets kids who are locked up.  It would be easy to think of juvenile detention centers as places with no hope, places of lost dreams, places of regret. That’s not his perspective. He goes in and offer these kids hope. He shows them what they are good at and offers a different perspective of what their life could look like. Hope changes their lives, the lives of their family, the lives of their friends. 

Today, I had a conversation with a man that travels the United States teaching students how to combat bullying. He found the answer not aggression, reporting, or ignoring. It is kindness. Kindness diffuses bullying. It is partnering with hope that the bullied and the bully can actually be friends. What if a whole generation and entire schools can experience freedom through partnering with hope. 

As believers we know that God is the God of the impossible. If we connect our hearts to Him, we can be the most hopeful people on the planet. Francis Frangipane said, “Every area of our life that is not glistening with hope means that we are believing a lie, and that area is a stronghold of the enemy.” 

 Perhaps the area I have seen this in most clearly is in my journey as a single. I spent my teens and early twenties in constant state of hopelessness. Hopeless, because my friend got asked out by the guy I liked. Hopeless, because I didn’t know any guys who were running after Jesus like I was. Hopeless, because I misread someone’s intentions…again. This area of my life was certainly not “glistening with hope.”  It was however, laced with misperceptions about myself, inner vows, bitterness, anger and co-dependency. Letting God heal these areas allowed hope to flood my heart again. 

I believe that God is restoring hope to His bride. God is on our side. The One who can make a deliverer out of a runaway, a warrior out of a shepherd, world shifters out of a teenage fisherman.