When was the last time you broke down? What? Did I just ask that? How can I ask you for such information. Maybe because most of us post our most intimate details on Facebook, but then when I ask the same question face to face in a coffee shop, the floodgates drop! It's pretty easy to receive this question when you're looking at your laptop screen, but it won't hurt my feelings if I don't see any stories in my comment box. It's not an easy question to give an open answer to. Most of us would rather not talk about when we were most vulnerable. Who wants to reveal our ""weakness""?
"Did you see the double apostrophe there? I wanted you to visualize me doing very obvious apostrophe fingers".
I was driving around with some family one Saturday and we were talking about what has been going on with my life. A lot of revolved around usual small talk and the obvious questions you usually ask someone you haven't seen for a couple weeks, until we came to one specific topic. This conversation had a lot of questions that went along with it.
How is that going now?
Where have you been looking?
Has anyone called you back?
What do you want to do?
When are you going to get a girlfriend? (okay, this question I made up, but the question has started to come up more often now that my get married at 27 timeline has long expired, whoops!)
I didn't have an answer for a lot of these questions. Which is where the breakdown occurred. Wait, let me back up. There was one more thing that happened just after the question firing squad. My mom turned to me and said "Everything will work out". To that I responded "I Hope so." It was just after this that as I walked back to my apartment, walking through the outdoor hallways towards my mailbox that I..broke..down.
"Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long" Psalm 25:5
The Bible makes a beautiful translation for the word hope and i'm just going to go ahead and give the two that we most hear about- the Greek and the Hebrew
Greek- the expectation of what is SURE
Hebrew- to lie in wait for, or to BIND
I really do love these expressions of hope because they reach so much deeper than what I think the world see's the inward and outward expression of hope. A lot of times I will hear people say, "Man I hope I get that new job" or "I hope that I get a good parking spot at the grocery store" or even "I hope that that guy at the club calls me".
(With the last one, ladies. there are many reasons why he won't call you, but don't take it personally. You're beautiful.)
But I think that hope is a term that we use when the circumstances in our life are going well and even if a few little things don't go the way we "hope" they would go, it is only when those circumstances start crashing down and the things we really hope for pass us by, that incredible gift just..vanishes.
Of course this happens to the best of us, right? That moment when all uncertainty, the shadow of doubt just crashes on us and the feeling of hopelessness when thousands of question marks just overflow our hearts. If Jesus has made a home in our heart, do you think He is welcoming the enemy in for coffee every now and again? The realization is there that there is a difference between having hope and living with hope. Just saying you have hope in any given hope is fleeting and melts away from the moment the words leave your mouth.
Having hope- is an optimistic notion
is accepting that the worst can happen
is giving doubt a voice
is letting that doubt tell you that the worst is bound to happen
Living in hope- is a faithful notion
is accepting Jesus will help you overcome the worst
is silencing the voice of doubt
and is an eternal outlook that Binds us to the love of God and
is an expectation of God's promises to bless us and mold us for our better.
"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have Hope" Romans 15:4
and
"May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in Him, so that you may OVERFLOW with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13
and finally
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the Hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his Holy people." Ephesians 1:18
So guess what? I am now proud to announce that I am now in a serious relationship. Just kidding. :-) I am still on the look out in that department. But I will say that God gave me a big "Are you kidding me" on the patio of my apartment that day. It was as clear as day too. He asked me flat out, "When have I ever not been there for you?" "When have I not been for you?" The simple truth is, is that when we lose hope, it is not because of an inconsistent track record. If we were keeping score with God, he would already be millions of points ahead of us, solely on sacrifice alone.
We should walk up hope because we have a merciful God that SURE of how he created us. We should have hope because we have a loving God who lying in waiting to join Him in eternity. And finally, we have a God that is expecting to help us overcome the good and the bad, the voice of doubt in our ears and in love bound himself to our eternity through his Son. Do you think you have every reason to hope now? And it's not so much the things we see that we can hope for, but we live hope that no matter what the circumstance, we are being taken care of. We are being nurtured and grown to a beautiful image of completion.
I pray that the eyes of your heart will be opened so that you may have hope. That you may have hope in the purpose God has for you and that that purpose is for no better word, Glorious.
I hope you all have a great Friday and weekend and please, I encourage you to comment on any praises or prayer requests you may have, whether this is an unsure part of your life or if God has shed some light on where you're going. Thank you so much for taking the time to read along and I hope to hear from you all soon.
Grayson
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