Where Is Your Hope?
What if God really is who He says He is?
How would today look different if you really believed this?
And what if He really provides how He promises He does…?
…but you just got so off-track listening to what the WORLD says you SHOULD be doing… chase that relationship, buy more stuff, get credit to go into debt to get more credit, fight to hold onto that job when God’s trying to show you something better, go to school for 20 years because someone says that’s just the way it’s done… that you’ve been missing HIS purpose for you?
Take delight in THE LORD,
and HE WILL GIVE YOU the desires of your heart. (emphasis added)
Psalm 37:4
Simple, right?
Delight in HIM.
He will give you the desires of your heart.
I believe Him. I’ve found this to be true.
What do you delight in?
He already knows the desires of your heart (and honestly I believe those desires were the things you talked about being and doing when you were little… before the world somehow talked you into believing you COULDN’T.)
Where is your hope?
Isaiah 40:31
but those who hope in the Lord
WILL renew their strength.
They WILL soar on wings like eagles;
they WILL run and not grow weary,
they WILL walk and not be faint. (emphasis added)
It doesn’t say might, or may, or could.
It WILL happen.
Where is your hope?
In your job?
In your degree?
In your bank account?
In your pastor or preacher?
Your friends?
God has jobs for each of us to be doing and if we put our hope IN HIM, He WILL make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way. It’s just something He does. I can’t explain it.
It’s all about Him.
We lost our way.
The enemy set up A LOT of detours for us and we fell for just about all of them listening to the father of lies.
We buy houses, toys, and stuff (WAY too much stuff,) stress over busy schedules we often plan for ourselves (or we allow others to put on us,) worrying about what we’ll have tomorrow so much that we’re missing the “today” He wants for us.
But God’s got this.
Matthew 6:33
But seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (what we’ll eat, drink, and wear) will be given to you as well. (emphasis added)
Sometimes even when we DO ask for His direction and He answers, we take it and tell Him, “Thanks, God. I’ve got it from here.”
But we don’t.
He wants constant contact with us all through the day and even at night when we wake up. That whole pray without ceasing thing… He wants to stay connected to us.
I don’t know what your prayer life looks like but would you feel close to someone who talks to you as much or little as you talk with God?
HE opens doors for you that your enemies cannot shut and He also shuts doors to redirect you that no friend can open.
What if that “distraction” today really isn’t a distraction at all?
What if that is exactly where your attention is needed most?
What if God’s tugging on your heart to start a ministry there?
I hear about so many people who are unsatisfied at the end of the day.
It’s because when we’re not living FOR Him then life FEELS empty.
He wants ALL of us.
He even wants our bodies to be a “living sacrifice” for Him.
And that’s not even anything exceptional or special.
He says it’s our “reasonable” service back to Him.
Romans 12:1b
…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
You are a soul and God has given you a body to be used FOR Him.
(Please know when I talk about this I’m also talking to myself. I’ve used my body and others did too in ways that were NOT pleasing to God at all.)
If your boss loans you a car to use for business use, but instead you use it for personal use, do you think there may be consequences?
Sometimes following Him is fun. And it’s also scary and exciting and terrifying. But it’s always good.
And when God puts a ministry in your heart you don’t have to wonder if He’ll provide support for it.
Who cares if it looks impossible?!
He WILL provide when you keep putting your hope in HIM.
He did not say to put your hope in your friends, or your teacher, or what your preacher thinks, your bank account, or the church’s “Missions Committee,” or your mom.
He said to put your hope in HIM.
He is MORE than enough.
HE has UNLIMITED resources and He knows how to send what we need when we need it.
Is that really so hard to believe?
It doesn’t really matter what the modern-day Pharisees say either. (In fact, God has work for them to be doing also and I’ve gotta believe it’s something more than critiquing the ministry you feel called to… If they believed as much as they profess they do, then they’d realize He already has a purpose for each of them also. When they have courage to ask Him, and choose to listen to Him, I have no doubt He’ll reveal more to them.)
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Sometimes God plants a ministry in your heart and He spends a long, long, long time teaching us things He will have us use then.
When we rush things, we miss some of His training….
…Sometimes He wants to reach us through those tough conversations with others, or dealing with that guy at the office, or the time you didn’t know how to pay the bills, or when your child was sick, the time you had to move, or when your marriage was falling apart … EVERY moment is another moment to trust more IN HIM.
Staying in prayer asking Him to lead every day opens more opportunity to see Him working and creates a peace that I don’t even know how to explain.
What I’ve learned is that Faith and Trust pry my fingers off of Control.
The days I’m most unsatisfied are the days I’m trying to control too much.
Giving HIM control of MY schedule and MY body changes …well, everything.
The reason I can’t stop talking about this stuff is because if He can do what He has done with me, then I cannot WAIT to hear what He does with you.
Matthew 11:28
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
