Just take a quiet moment to think about what you are hoping for, right at this moment, for today, tomorrow and in the future. No doubt, It will take you much longer because our hopes are dictated by our circumstances and decisions that we make or have made.
Hope is defined as, a feeling or expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. I read the following definition here ” Hope is an optimistic state of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation.”What did you hope for as a child, a teenager, an adult or what do you hope for, at whatever stage you are now in, in your life?
Our lives are based on hope. Most of us work on getting or achieving what we hope for.
This is how my hope journey began over 50 years ago. My life was a journey of hopeful and hopeless circumstances and good and bad decisions. Hoping that tomorrow would be better then today, that I would do well in sports, that I would pass my exams, that I would get a job, that my girl friend would say yes, when I asked her to marry me. That, we would get a house, have children and that our marriage would be a success. Hope, along with fears ruled my life.
This is where my life changed. I was stressed and maybe depressed when I made an appointment to see a doctor. He ordered the many tests to ensure that there was no physical reason for my condition. He gave me a perscription for nerve pills but it was what he said, when I was leaving his office, that changed my life.
He asked me ”do you know God?” I looked back at him but did not respond. I had the perscription filled but did not take them. His question, ”do you know God” stuck in my mind. I spent hours at the library, during lunch breaks, reading books on the meaning of life, new age material, various religions but I kept returning to the bible. I had attended sunday school but stopped going when I was nine years old. We moved to another town and stopped going to church.
I was twenty six years old, married with one child when I made the greatest decision of my life. I made a decision to follow Jesus and life took on a new meaning. Hope took on a new meaning. This doctor gave me the greatest perscription that anybody could give to another person. Do you know God?
By the way, I had been praying for years that I would have an opportunity to thank that doctor for his perscription. It would be about 45 years before it happened. I had heard that he had died or was an alcoholic but I kept praying. I had made an appointment for an eye examination and the surname of the doctor was the same as the one who gave me the Godly perscription. To be truthful I thought it was a relative or a coincidence.
When I was in the office waiting room, he called my name and I went into his office. He looked like it could be him so I asked if he had a clinic at a certain address forty five years ago, He said yes and I told him my story. He replied,” did I really say that” and I said yes and reached out my hand to thank him. He looked at me and said ;”Steve, you are giving me goose bumps”. I could see them on his arm.
We chatted for a little while and as I was leaving his office I breathed a prayer of thanks to God for his faithfulness in answering my prayer.
The following verse is one of many that I place my hope on.
Jermiah 29;11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
All becaause..
1 Peter 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
.“For the believer there is hope beyond the grave, because Jesus Christ has opened the door to heaven for us by His death and resurrection.” -Billy Graham
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
When darkness veils his lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the ‘whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in his righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
Real hope is found in Jesus…
Be Blessed as you live or consider to live life as a follower of Jesus
Thank you for reading my story. It is sincerely appreciated.
contact
steve@whatisrealhope.com