I always believed I was a person that had hope. I always strive to believe for the best. I believe hope is a force that everyone needs in life and it keeps us from negativity, from getting down and battling depression. If you battle depression, most likely your lack of hope is the reason.
But I also struggled with disappointments. I would believe so hard for something that when it didn’t happen I would get crushed. It’s a horrible roller coaster of emotions and one that I truly don’t believe God wants for us.
Lately, in my personal life, my hope has been challenged. It’s been tested, weakened, beaten, thrown about, and hanging on by a thread. I say “my hope” because I recently learned that “my hope” is actually not the hope I’m supposed to have.
“My hope” has to do with “my version of the outcome I want to see”. This is dangerous because anything less than “my version” sets me up for disappointment. Here I am putting “my hope” as a fact-based expectation and slapping God’s name on it.
No. God doesn’t share His glory.
That’s what I’ve been missing!
The widow in the Bible had bill collectors knocking at her door. Her husband had died and she had no more money. Her version of hope was with her husband. When he died, her hope died too and she was ready to sell her sons into slavery so she could pay her bills. That’s what happens when we don’t have real hope, we become slaves to the negative forces around us. But God said NO and brought Elisha to pour into her a blessing and resource she could have never achieved on her own and it SAVED HER!
BECAUSE HOPE SAVES!
God’s hope… REAL HOPE is never in a person or thing. It’s a source.
It’s actually a point of power.
God has been testing my hope to show me that hope has no limits and is not tied to anything or anyone so I can’t confine it. I have to let it breathe! I have to expect it to come from nowhere and not put it in the outcome I want but the outcome God wants.
This is why hope is powerful. Hope WILL ALWAYS defy your natural resources. Hope says “don’t worry if the doctor can’t heal you I can do it a different way”! Hope says “I know you lost your job but I’m going to send money to you from a place you didn’t expect”. Hope yells “Don’t worry if they left you, I have a new thing I can do for you”! Hope always cheers you on to keep going, anything less was “your hope” and not God’s hope.
Hope CAN ONLY START where you END! It’s only when you can’t see any other possible outcome for your situation or any other way you can survive life, that’s when HOPE takes it’s first breath and makes it’s way to the front of the line.
After all, God IS hope. If you can’t put God in a box, you shouldn’t put hope in a box either.
“I’m just a person who writes about her experiences to hopefully help others not fall where I have. I hope that my lessons can inspire. I pray I can produce hope in others. I write about me to unburden my soul of the weight I feel to just help one person.” -Daniela V. Mangini
Becoming Invincible 