{via}
Hope.
What is hope? Do I have hope? Do you?
My definition of hope has changed this week, mostly due to an excellent message the hubs and I listened to this past Sunday from Dr. Larry Osborne (watch here if you need some inspiration).
“Hope is not saying ‘Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish…I just wish it would happen.” In the biblical sense of the word, hope isn’t ‘I hope, I hope, I hope.’ The word hope means ‘I know, I know, I know.'”
I know…
I don’t wish that the Lord is good; I know the Lord is good.
I don’t wish that the Lord would care for me; I know the Lord cares for me.
I don’t wish that the Lord would be in control; I know the Lord is in control.
I don’t keep up much with world news and all the happenings, mostly because world news can just tend to make me feel discouraged and hopeless. But I’ve heard enough to know that there are some big deals going on that a lot of people are concerned about. Now just because I’m the “stick my head in the sand” type of person doesn’t mean that everyone should be…but my question is, what do you feel when you hear the news of wars and chaos and economic downfall?
I can easily feel worried and discouraged. I can easily start lamenting about dark the world is and how bad our country is turning out to be, etc, etc. etc. I can easily start wishing for the Lord to be in control of the situations.
But this week I’m learning my hope is completely in Him. My knowing is completely in Him. I know He’s in control. He’s not frantically trying to scramble together a solution for the things going on with Syria…He knows. He’s in control.
And my prayer for myself is that I will know, no matter what happens in my lifetime, no matter how “bad” things get in this country, or how difficult my life will become, that the Lord is my hope.
“Be of good courage…all you who {know} in the Lord.”
Good word… it has real hope and authority in it.