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A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.
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In Christianity, the theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God’s help.
The book of Job is full of hope….Job’s hope that he will be healed and his heart will be restored. Job is ever so faithful and he cannot be broken….no matter what is done to his heart, his land, his fortune, his health. He BELIEVES that God is what He says He is, only faltering from that faith for a split second. Job trusts God. He just does.
Do you? Do I?
I have often wondered where my faith and hope truly rest. Do I believe that God is who He says He is? Do I have FAITH that He will get me through any and all situations with the ultimate goal of showing His glory and my heart for Him growing deeper? I don’t know. I just don’t.
In my recent days I have seen, over and over again, how quick I am to just take the ball I am given and run with it. Starting a business while raising three kids and working full time is not easy. You just learn to do everything yourself for fear that something might not get done. If it doesn’t, uh-oh. If it does, whew. That’s it. No big fan fare for a job well done, no big “HOORAY! You did it!” Just….done.
With this taking the ball and running mentality comes FEAR. Big time fear. You start playing “what ifs”…..What if I don’t get it all done? What if my child doesn’t take a bath and have a clean pair of jeans to wear to school tomorrow? What if I can’t get my orders filled quickly enough or I’m so tired from being up late that I can’t do my “paying job” well enough anymore? Or what if I forget to send lunch money to school? What if one can’t go to an event because another has something else more important to attend? Unfortunately, I can’t be in more than one place at a time (and actually….now that I think about it….I’m glad I can’t. I’m tired enough as it is!).
So I’ve been looking for an answer. An answer to why my hope isn’t fully in God. And you guessed it. Yep….God whacked me upside the head and gave me my answer. I love it when He does that. 🙂 My answer is in Jeremiah 29:11-13.
“For I know the plans I have for you,”
declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. Then you
will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen
to you. You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all your heart.”
I love this verse. Probably in my top 10 favs. But…and yes there is a but….I MISSED this part. Verse 13. The part where God says “SEEK ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND YOU WILL FIND ME“. That’s what I have been missing. My lack of faith has lead to fear, which lead to lack of seeking Him with all my heart, which lead to having only partial hope in God and putting the rest of my hope in my own limited abilities.
DUH. DUH. DUH.
Now what? Now what. Well….I seek Him. With all that I am and all that I have. I open my heart to His direction and in that openness is where I find Him. I stop being so hard on myself, stop wearing myself out and give God the chance to take care of things for me. I let Him have control of the reins and steer me down His path where I can only hope is more peace and less stress. That will not be easy but as my favorite line from my favorite movie of all time “Hope Floats” goes….”Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will….”
HOPE….I’M GIVIN’ YOU A CHANCE. SO FLOAT ALREADY! 🙂
