Hope: A Feeling - That is Actually Encouraged

Man, oh man, oh man. Do I have a word for you today. A rhema word, an utterance from the Lord. I encourage you to seek His face with intention this week - God is working some unique things for those who believe in Him.  Psalms 46:10 tells us to "Be still and know the He is God." To know is to acknowledge - it is a state of being. So my plug before I begin the rest of the blog is to STOP what you are doing - be still and KNOW He is God. To search Him - wait patiently on Him - you will be rewared with a brand new word that will awaken your core and set you alive for the rest of the day.


God's Word to me today - HOPE. Easy enough, I thought and was about to just jump up from my postion of prayer, convicted, I waited. Remembering His ways are higher than mine. So I waited - HOPE was whispered again - but this time my being was alive, my heart started to race. Again - HOPE, along with specific hopes God birthed in me that will remain in Him and my sacrid place. Again, my plug, you HAVE GOT TO GET IN THAT SACRID PLACE WITH HIM - IT'S EVERY KIND OF GOOD.


I began to research HOPE in the dictionary and in God's Word (His written whispers) AND words can NOT AMPLIFY what God is saying in this one word....HOPE.




Hope, in the dictionary, is defined as a state of feeling. PRAISE GOD! Just looking up the word in the dictionary confirmed God was speaking to me. Those who know me - know I'm all kinds of feelings. I'm fueled by them as I've mentioned in other entries of our blog. I 'lovies' the feelings. I'm a feeler-feelie mcgee. Okay I think you get it. Back to more spiritually profound things..


Hope is a state of feeling. It is a noun known as 'the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that that events will turn out for the best.' It is also known as a verb 'to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence; to believe, desire, or trust.'


There is all kinds of amazingness in just the definition of HOPE. And HOPE as a BELIEVER HAS EVEN GREATER SIGNIFICANCE. When we - as His heirs, hope. He says in John 14:14 "You may ask me for ANYTHING in my name, and I will do it."


When we are His and we love Him - we obey His righteous decrees - because we trust He knows what kind of life will give us no regret and power and fullness. When we seek Him - knowing He knows what is in our heart of hearts (often times more than we know) - He will then tell us AND make a way for them to be lived out. Then we are made aware of what to ask Him for - because He wants a relationship with us and WANTS TO GIVE US THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART. OUR BIGGEST DREAMS. OUR BIGGEST AND MOST INCREDIBLE HOPES!

"Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,

   for his compassions never fail. 

 They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness. 

 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”

 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him;
 it is good to wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD." -Lamentations 3:21-26

And HOPE is different from FAITH - because hope is a feeling and faith is a believing. 

As humans we need hope. We need hope to be real and not mystical. We need hope to not only be in the possession of children who have yet to have their dreams shattered and the loony crazies that are medicated in asylums. I'm serious - our generation is discouraged from hoping. It isn't logical. It isn't safe. It isn't encouraged, therefore it isn't developed. Hopeful people have become an annoyance. An utter distraction from the flow of normalcy. Making it obvious that the enemy has preverted this feeling! We don't even hope anymore because we FEAR we will be let down! God isn't a God of fear - but of what???? OF POWER OF LOVE AND OF A SOUND MIND! (2 Timothy 1:7). God wants you to FEEL and HOPE in your salvation. I know this because I want my own son to hope! I want him to grow up to be a man who is HOPEFUL. Not defeated. HOPEFUL. God loves us more than we can love, so I can only imagine He desires it even more for His children. 

"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." - Romans 15:13

Confident hope! Wow! Imagine a community of believers that walks in CONFIDENT HOPE! Not just HOPE in our death but also in OUR LIFE! God is asking a generation, if they're are up for it, to take the risk and for the LOVE of GOD ALMIGHTY - have HOPE!

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands." - Psalm 78:7

Did you catch that - anew on GOD. ANEW! Remembering all the miracles He did - BUT ALSO GIVING US THE POWER TO PREFORM NEW MIRACLES KNOWING HE ACTED ON BEHALF OF HIS PEOPLE IN THE PAST - AND THAT HE WILL SURELY DO IT FOR US NOW. We can be sure of this because His word says in Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday AND today AND forever." (AND emphasis is mine). The same exact power - Holy Spirit - that rose a man to life, who was dead for 3 days - LIVES INSIDE OF YOU!

That isn't just faith that is HOPE. 

My findings of hope in God's Word only fanned the flames in me to full blown forest fire. Read slowly and see them as words specifically for you this day - and let your HOPE ARISE - TAKE IT BACK FROM THE ENEMY. Hope again!

We put our hope in the LORD.
He is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20 


Having hope will give you courage.
You will be protected and will rest in safety. Job 11:18


When doubts filled my mind,
your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. Psalm 94:19 


Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Hebrews 10:23 


Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you. Psalm 25:5 


Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 2 Corinthians 3:12


Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 


I believe you can't have powerfully effective FAITH without HOPE. And I leave you with this...if I be bias about any of God's scriptures, I will say it was my favorite of all I found today. I pray this over everyone who reads this today - be empowered and infused with hope today. ALSO BEFORE THE SCRIPTURE - May I be so bold to believe when you have HOPE, that you WEAR IT on your face, your attitude, your actions, that it breathes life into your FAITH. AND when you let this happen - when your HOPE becomes huge - that it begins to contaminate the people around you - it will spur them to ask why you're so HOPEFUL - that in your HOPE you WILL have an answer for them and connect them to do business with the TRUE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 


I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13