“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for”
Hebrews 11:1
What are you hoping for right now? A job promotion? A new car? To see a relationship healed or a new one begin? The world defines hope as “a desire, wish, goal, or expectation.” Obviously wherever our hopes are placed determines our idea of what prosperity is. By that I mean, that if our hopes come true we will have a feeling we have succeeded.
But there is definitely a problem with hopes, desires, and expectations. The problem comes when we allow our expectations to stem from our emotions and personal ideas of what is best. I don’t know about you, but I can reflect back on my life and think of many things I hoped for that turned out to be big disappointments. This has especially been true with new products I have tried. I had “hoped” the latest cleaner would make my tile look brand new. It didn’t. I had “hoped” the new diet would make me look like a model. It didn’t. I’m sure we all have experienced disappointments from things we have “hoped” for.
When we place our hopes in what we think will make us better or happier, we place ourselves in a dangerous game of roulette that could lead to nothing more than disappointment and perhaps even despair. Why is that? It is because we formulate our hopes with our minds. We decide we either want or need a specific thing, so we hope we will get it. Or we determine that something ought to happen a certain way, so we reason with hope that it will take place. But reasoning is not truth. Therefore more often than not we find ourselves disappointed over the events of life. That’s because our minds are nothing more than a fallen faculty that is a result of our humanity.
But when we place our hope in what Christ has promised, our soul will begin to understand what real prosperity is. For faith is the seed that produces real hope. All our hope should spring from our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. When that is true we will measure prosperity from our true Source, God.
Hope will never lead to hopelessness when it is placed in Christ. Mainly because real hope is not what we formulate in our minds. Our real hope stems from believing the promises given us in Christ. Maybe it’s time we learn to move our hopes from our heads to our hearts.
Darlene