I have been learning about what hope is lately..
I don't think I ever understood it before, and I want to learn more and more what it means, for with God, there is so much hope. I have been in seasons where I felt things were hopeless, felt nothing would ever change for the better, felt that even if I prayed, it wouldn't make any difference or help matters, felt truly despairing.
Yet, with the wonderful filling of the Holy Spirit, one of the wonderful things His presence brought was a sense of hope! He started showing me that things are always hopeful with God - after all, He has already won the battle against Satan and evil and already reigns over all! He laughs at the enemy's schemes. Nothing is too hard for Him! He is smiling because He knows that LOVE WINS! And He is giving us the joy of living in that victory NOW, not just later in heaven.
I love that! I love the feeling of freedom and the feeling of having a God inside me who is WAY stronger than the enemy or any attack of the enemy!
I used to feel like a grasshopper under the enemy's foot...now God is showing me that the enemy is a grasshopper under Jesus' feet! Haha! And He has given us authority over the enemy, so we never have to be ruled by him in any way. We are truly free. I had listened to the enemy's lies so long and had gotten so depressed and hopeless. Now God is showing me that I have a Big Brother, Jesus, always backing me up and the power of the resurrection always at work in me. He can do far more than I can ask or imagine. I want to know that truth and live in it more and more..all that gives me such hope!
Hope for a brighter tomorrow...hope that situations can change and get better..hope that God will bring me through in victory, no matter what..hope that the future will be good, not bad..hope that good things will come and that God will bless and bring me to new and happier places through His love...hope that He will continue to break off those lies that confuse me..hope that He will continue to free my heart to really soar and be carefree and unworried in Him..hope that I will grow and enjoy my relationship with God more and more!
Hope is not wishing something would change or get better. Hope is expecting good things, because we KNOW good things are coming. We don't just wish for them, God promised them!
God keeps His promises, and He promised to deliver all who call on Him, to answer their every prayer, to work all things for good, to carry our burdens daily, to guard our going out and coming in, to bless the righteous, to surround us with favor, to never get angry with us or rebuke us, to never remember our sins, to uplift us when we fall, to always lead us in triumph, to comfort us with the comfort of Christ, to strengthen and establish us, to crush Satan underneath our feet, to complete the work He started in us, to stay with us, to keep us firm in the faith, to bring us safely to heaven and give us the full heavenly inheritance! I could go on and on, but those are the promises I can think of right now..
And hope is expecting all those things to happen, knowing they will! Hope is the real expectation of His grace manifesting in blessing in my life! It's the confident expectation of that, because it IS going to happen FOR SURE - for He who promised is FAITHFUL!
