Happy December Everyone!
Over the last week in my regular radio spot and an invitation to speak to a group, the same topic was requested “Finding Hope for the Future”. There is such a need find hope when life has been challenging. As we close out 2021 and look to the future of 2022 here are my thoughts on hope.
So how so we find hope?
Really what is hope?
Hope is a intransitive verb. Which means for example ; to cherish a desire with anticipation : It’s a verb that indicates a complete action without being accompanied by a direct object. My translation – Hope is a choice – Hope is an action on our part – a decision to find hope within ourselves when everything in our circumstances feels hopeless.
I believe that hope is more than simply having belief or being optimistic. Optimism is the belief that things will be better. Most people would agree that optimism is greater than pessimism, but what a great revelation that hope is greater than optimism. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue; hope, an active one.
In order to have hope, we must take control of our attitude and discipline ourselves to stay hopeful when everything inside of us screams defeat. When we are facing a crisis, this is an active effort. In general we get what we expect in life. I don’t know why that is true, but it is. Norman Cousins remarked, “The main trouble with despair is that it is self-fulfilling. People who fear the worst tend to invite it. When our heads that are down we can’t scan the horizon for new opportunities. Bursts of energy do not spring from a spirit of defeat. Ultimately, helplessness leads to hopelessness.”
If your expectations for life are negative, you end up experiencing a lot of negatives I know this from lived experience. And those negatives are compounded and become especially painful, because negative expectations cause a person not to learn from their losses.
The good news is that you don’t have to live with negative thinking. You can change your thinking from a negative mind-set, in which you feel hopeless, don’t learn from your losses, and are tempted to give up, to a positive mind-set, in which you believe things can get better, you learn from your mistakes, and you never quit. This is where courage comes into play — it takes courage on our part to identify that we need to make a change.
If you have been a negative thinker whose motivation has been rarely fuelled by hope, then you must make a determination every day to try to renew your hope, change your thinking for the better, and believe that good things can and will happen to you.
Doing these things can literally change your life. Not only do these moments define us, but they have a transformative effect on our perceptions, our emotions and behaviours and those around us. The choice we make in that moment will define our future. The most important point in this, is that we know there is always a way forward, always a choice, a choice for life itself and always hope for the future.
Hope gives us a reason to live. It is the one thing we cannot do without. Having hope means we are focusing on what we can do instead of fixating on what we cannot do. Your hope can be taken away if your hope is in a desired outcome or result.
I love this quote “Hope has two beautiful daughter; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – Augustine of Hippo this is the courage I am talking about.
True hope is greater than a label, a title, an object or even your worst circumstance because, from my experience hope is what we find within our hearts. Hope is an ‘inside job’. Hope is basically what causes us to think, “we can get through this and we can do greater things.’ Hope keeps us going during the most difficult times of life and is one of the most amazing gifts we can give to others.
I love this scripture that I choose to grab with both hands “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope.” Abound is an activity verb and for me that means a ‘doing’.. it requires and action from me and from you.
I have grabbed this abounding hope in my life and encourage you to do the same – not occasional hope – not hot and cold hope – but abounding hope. Abounding is abundant hope that takes an action step forward.
My journey to hope showed me we do not need to know exactly how our lives will change; we just need to have faith they can and will, I found a seed of hope. That seed of hope triggered something deep inside of me, and I started to believe there could be a different life, a different way forward and I have lived that out every day since.
When we take that step to even look for HOPE that is a great starting point.
• It enables us to see possibility in our problems and gives us confidence that we can create change and improve our quality of life.
• It starts with an action – taking control of our attitude and disciplining ourselves to look forward when everything inside of us screams defeat, is key.
• It enables us to see possibility in our problems and gives us confidence that we can create change and improve the quality of our life.
Hope has the power to transform what we believe and expect. “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible” — Helen Keller
We all have the capacity for hope within us, just as we have the capacity for hate and anger. Hope is a seed we get to water or to kill. It is a choice!
Hope is not something we can purchase and add to our lives. It is not something we can get from other people. We need to find the hope within ourselves.
I like to use HOPE as an acronym:
Hanging
On with
Patient
Expectation
When we are facing a crisis, this is an active effort. We must remove our blinders of fear, insecurity and disappointment and realise that, regardless of circumstances, what we do today matters. We have the opportunity to do something different today than what we did yesterday. That something can be the thing that changes our future.
Even if the thread of our own hope is thin and frayed and our dreams and expectations are gone, it’s not too late for us! We need to hold tightly to something stronger than our own disappointed thoughts, something beyond what is visible to our eyes.
• Hope changes how we see ourselves.
• How we view others and how we approach our circumstances.
• It has the power to alter what we value and directly affects what we do with our talents, time and resources.
• Hope changes our perspective – our situations can be exactly the same, but we can feel completely different about them when one little thing happens – when we have hope.
• Hope is the tipping point between impossible and possible. When you remove the word impossible from your thinking, you automatically raise your potential for achieving.
For every step you take forward, your hope grows stronger, and the positive change you believe can happen, comes closer to actually happening. Hope will remain alive when we choose to grab on with both hands, when our lives are altered, our “normal” is shattered, and our expectations aren’t met. Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”
Remember that Hope is contagious!
Think about how you can shine your hope with those around you this Christmas.
I can’t share on hope without sharing my faith. I believe that Hope is the practice of believing God will get you from here to there. Hope is a gift that is available to us all.
“Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!”
Romans 15:13 TPT
Merry Christmas everyone,
Please keep safe and well and anchor to HOPE and let it SHINE Brightly…
Love Wendy xx
