Welcome! In this post let’s dive into how our relationship with God infuses us with hope.
Hope over our missteps of the past, which God can redeem. Hope for our present. And hope for the future, on the glorious day we will see Him face-to-face. A Christian’s hope is not simply a desire for something possibly attainable. A Christian’s hope is certain, because God has guaranteed it. God loved us at creation, and sent Jesus to ensure our eternity with Him when we accept Him as Lord.
Bottom line: our hope gains us strength, rest, and contentment. Let’s look at three ways we can tap into this hope, and keep it with us on a daily basis.
Hope That We’re Special to God
Our value comes from one single source: God. Only what He says about us matters. Not what society says, not what our spouses say, not what our children say, not what our parents say, etc. God tells us over and over and over again in the Bible that He will never stop loving us, rooting for us, carrying us, and seeking after a relationship with us. Why? Because we are that special to Him.
If you’ve gotten the idea from your church that you’re not highly valued by God, you heard wrong. God may not like our behavior when it runs counter to His standards, but he never, for an instance, views us without love. That’s AMAZING grace, friends!
The Bible tells us He CRAVES to be in relationship with us. Because He knows that if He can get our attention, He can tells us His love message over and over and over until it finally sinks into our souls and echoes with every heartbeat. Jesus covered all of our sins at the cross. God’s face is always turned toward us.
Hope That We’re Not Our Mistakes
I CANNOT tell you how much I love this one! We all want to be redeemed from our dumb choices, right?God repeatedly tells us to drop our soiled baggage at His feet — and to stop picking it up again. Yes, it can be so hard to sometimes let go of the guilt and shame we think we have to keep punishing ourselves with. But God tells us to drop our load because He knows how much it hobbles us in moving forward. Anyway, He’s already forgiven it. The FIRST time we asked!
You might have been told, as a child, that you were a screw up. You might have been reminded last week by a family member, boss, or stranger, that you’re a screw up. You might even, at this very moment, be hearing voices in your head that you’re a screw up. BUT YOU ARE NOT. Trust me; I know how hard this can be to believe!
I was raised in a church that taught that God’s love for me was conditional. So it intentionally reminded me of my screwed-up nature every single Sunday. Family members also repeatedly told me that I didn’t measure up. So sometimes the negative self-talk in my head is downright vicious. That’s when I limp to God, to anxiously test if He’s still with me. My hope returns when in my soul I hear God assert, “Your who is NOT your do, beloved child of mine. You are redeemed because of my son, Jesus.” That renews my spirit!
Hope That Our Life Matters
There is nothing worse than wandering through our days without meaning and purpose. Because without either we get antsy and depressed and start to think of ourselves as inconsequential. And then we begin to compare ourselves with others, which is never good, because we lose hope.
God’s Word tells us that HE distributes our gifts and talents. And that HE doesn’t view one person’s talents as more important than another’s. You might feel yourself a tiny minnow in a miles-wide ocean, but that’s not how God sees you. He sees you as the right person, in the right place, to do what He needs done in the right moment.
You might not be aware of it, but your words and actions have the power to change the trajectory of many other lives. Your bright smile might be the very nugget of hope that buoys another person. Your shared meal might be the small gesture of generosity that soothes another’s rejected heart. Your carving time out of your hectic schedule to sit with a hurting friend might plant seeds of hope that blossom and bear fruit that others get to gratefully gobble up.
We’re all connected; Our actions matter because WE matter to our Creator!
So if you’re lying in a hospital bed right without hope, let this post remind you. If you’re having trouble finding a job and view yourself as worthless, let this post remind you to regain hope. If you’re going through a painful divorce and view yourself as unlovable, let this post remind of God’s great love for you. God says He’s with us through even our lowest of lows. Our hope shouldn’t be dependent on our circumstances, because the source of our hope is a solid rock.
Accept it. Believe it. Live it. You matter, you are special, and you are loved no matter what. Allow Jesus’s sacrifice to spark hope eternal in you!
In our next blog post, let’s look toward Easter!
Catch up: The introductory post to this series.