Hope
What is HOPE?
Merriam Webster defines hope as:
hope noun
1a: desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment also: expectation of fulfillment or success
b: someone or something on which hopes are centered
c: something desired or hoped for
2 TRUST
hope verb
1: to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true.
2 TRUST
transitive verb
1: to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment
2: to expect with confidence
Think back on any situation that you gave up on. Why did you give up? Because you lost hope. You had faced disappointment so great or so long that you no longer believed that the thing you hoped for would ever happen.
I want to share a short story with you:
“A missionary was in an orphanage in Uganda, and he has been in many before, but this one was different. He walked into a nursery with over 100 filled cribs with babes. He listened in amazement and wonder as the only sound he could hear was silence. A sound that is beyond rare in ANY nursery, let alone a nursery where over 100 new babes laid. He turned to his host and asked her why the nursery was silent. She looked at him and said, ‘After about a week of them being here, and crying out for countless hours, they eventually stop when they realize no one is coming for them……They stop crying when they realize no one is coming for them. Not in 10 minutes, not in 4 hours, and maybe, perhaps, not ever…”
When a child cries out in anguish, their hope is that someone will hear them and help them, rescue them, save them!
Without hope we give up; our heart grows sick, we stop crying out and we die!
So again, I ask you, what it HOPE? Hope is more than just a word. Hope is more than just a feeling. True hope is a choice. True hope is a discipline! Hope is the small word so but hope makes all the difference! It’s that serious! It’s that essential that we have our hope in the right place, or I should say the right person, our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Understand beloved, having hope is the only thing that can and will keep us going strong and allow us to continue to live an abundant life! Keeping hope alive is what keeps you alive! But make sure that your hope is centered on God.
Isaiah 40:31 New International Version (NIV)
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.
Much love,
Minister Dawn