Hope. What Do You Hope in?

Hope. What is hope?

Hope is what you put your trust in, a feeling of desire or expectation for a certain thing to happen.

So what do you put your hope in each day?

It is such a small word but so complex. How do you know what you put your hope in each day? I believe you can determine where you hope lies by looking at the things you look forward to each day that gives you a sense of satisfaction or belonging.

What is your hope set it? What are you striving for to make you happy? What is the thing if everything else fails and lets you down you still have _________.

Work

Success

Athletic ability

Bf/Gf/spouse

School

Smarts

Degrees

Family

Kids

Serving others

Beauty

Character

Fun

Laughter

Technology

Food

Comedy

For me, it was two things – boys and fun.

I would wake up excited about how I could get attention, do crazy stuff, and laugh. Whenever something happened as long as I had attention from a guy or something fun planned I was okay. I planned my days around capturing those two things to feel fulfilled and happy.

Until there were days I had neither. And on those days I struggled to get out of bed. What was the point? I had no motivation to do anything for I was not getting the two things in life that satisfied me, so when inevitably I didn’t have those things I felt empty, sad, and hopeless.

So what’s it for you? What do you do when the things you live for no longer are present in your life?

Could there be more to life?

Heck yes!! There is SO much more to life. I pray you get to experience it. That hope is Jesus Christ. Stay with me…I know normally Jesus doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but let me tell you how much more enjoyable my life has been since I accepted Jesus.

I now have hope of eternal life! My life does not merely end after this life. By accepting Jesus died on the cross and rose again for our sins (John 3:16) we get to spend eternity in heaven celebrating the holiest and fascinating God – being fully satisfied and complete FOREVER.

AND no longer do we have to feel so empty and purposeless. God gives us heaven….and even more! We get to have a free life right now, right here on Earth. This is where even many Christians don’t see that we have purpose and joy right NOW. We get to revel in God’s glory and love.

Our New Hope

When we bring Jesus into our lives He is now our hope. Instead of waking up looking forward to something that will only temporarily satisfy us we get to plan our days around how God can use us.

God can and wants to use YOU every day for His glory. He wants to use you to show love to people around you – not because they deserve it but because God loves them and we love because Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:19). He wants to use you to speak truth to the people around you. He wants to use you to love on the needy. He wants to use you to serve. He wants to change your hearty daily to make you more like HIM – loving, gracious, merciful, honorable, patient, kind…

There is no great purpose than God handcrafting you with the exact talents, weaknesses, characteristics and having a plan for your life. Even the things intended for harm He can make into our good (Genesis 50:20).