Emotion word - Hope

 

Many may not agree that ‘Hope’ is an emotion. Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; to expect with confidence. Hope is not the same as optimism. An optimistic generally is more hopeful than others. On the other hand, the most pessimistic person you ever met can still be hopeful about something. Hope is the belief things will work, especially when it seems otherwise. Hope believes you will get through it. Hope remembers the times you made it through. Hope teams with faith and believes in the impossible.

I don’t know about you but when I am going through a season of trials and when I am unable to see a light at the end of the tunnel, the emotion in the forefront of my mind is denial and distress. It takes work and perseverance to remember when the odds are stacked against me, the battle is the Lord’s. My mind knows that I need to hope. But, how do I find hope? Where do I look for it? How do I gain it? How do I fill my heart and mind with the hope of Christ? I may know in my head that Christ alone is my source of hope… but how do I get my heart to believe it, too. Hope takes practice. Hope takes faith. Hope takes work.  Hope must be an active word in my vocabulary. Hope is not passive. Hope doesn’t arrive on my front doorstep. Hope must be invited in. Hope must be welcomed. Hope must be practiced. Isaiah 40: 8 says -The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." I need to stay in the Word; pray the Word; memorize the Word; meditate on the Word. His Word gives life. Do not neglect the gift of His Word. This love letter from God is the key to our hopefulness.  ‘As the rain and the snow comes down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it’ - Isaiah 55:10-11

When my heart wonders – ‘Where are you God? How could a good God let this happen?’ Hope is knowing that - God is good at being God and he has decided that whatever I am going through is part of my story; the answer to my prayer. I don’t have to understand it, I don’t have to like it. Luke 12:27-28 - "Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you--you of little faith!  So, in the seasons of my waiting – my perspective shifts; I stay hoping; it allows me to not just endure, but to sow, to grow and to thrive. Bishop T.D Jakes said, “I will override the way I feel and do what I was called to do” So when the enemy shouts in my ear how broken I am,  I could choose to design my life to fit in my brokenness that I forget that I am broken or I can come to a place where I allow others to identify with my pain and not be identified by my pain – to be able to own it and not be ashamed by it. And so, in my days of uncertainty, I will put my hope in the one who satisfies my soul, I will still and quiet my soul in the comfort of His embrace – I will hope!

Written by: Anu Varghese