How to find Hope

In my blog yesterday I wrote about looking and seeing.  What we look for is what we see.  Seeing is so very important.  Each of us need eyes of faith.  My husband worked as a mechanic for over 20 years.  He loves motors and engines and cars.  He can look over in a field and see a rusted out piece of metal that is over 30 to 40 years old, half way falling apart, and he can tell you the make and the model of the vehicle.  I see a rusted out piece of junk, but he imagines what this thing would look like restored.  He doesn't have to actually go through the process of restoring the car to see it's potential.  When he looks at the car, he is able to envision in his mind a fully restored vehicle with a hopped up engine.  I'm looking at it too, but all is see is a piece of metal with grass growing up through the engine compartment! When you look at your own life and it's potential what do you see?  What other people see of the potential of your life is not nearly as important as what you see of it's potential. 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

Hope is something that resides in the heart, or at least it should be in each of our hearts.  Sometimes our hope can be displaced, and replaced with despair.   Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for...What is substance?  Dictionary.com defines substance this way.

1. that of which a thing consists; physical matter or material: form and substance.

 

Now take the definitions from dictionary.com and apply them into the Scripture,  Faith is that of which a thing consists: physical matter or material: form and substance.  God formed the worlds by what?  By faith.  Faith is the building block of this universe, it had the power to transform God's words into light, matter, energy, materials...faith is the key to everything!  

 

Faith is the substance of what?  The things you are hoping for!  We start with hope.  For the Bible says that we are not without hope and without God in this World.  When we put our hope in Jesus, our faith is born! We are to preach this Gospel of peace the HOPE of all mankind!   We should be hope builders.  When I spark hope into the life of another person I am giving FAITH something to work with within that person.  If there is no hope within a person, then faith has nothing to work with, and faith cannot bring the will of God into substance and reality for that individual!

 

Here are some practical examples.  If you are called to work in a certain area, and you begin to lose hope that you will ever make an impact, than faith has no way of manifesting.  And without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Faith isn't simply what a person believes, it is the manifestation of the things that you have hoped for. 

 

 When I was 23 weeks pregnant, my water broke and I was bleeding very bad.  I was rushed by ambulance to the UK hospital in Lexington, KY.  I was not given much hope.  I was told that most of the time delivery occurs within 3 to 4 days after the water breaks, and my baby was around one pound in weight.  The doctor explained to me that I had about 25% chance of the baby surviving.  That wasn't much hope, cause even if the baby did survive it was likely he would be handicapped.  I placed my hope in God.  I didn't have much to go on except my hope in God.  I did not lose hope, nor get discouraged, I remained fixed on the hope that God would intervene.  Seven weeks went by and I still had not delivered.  The miracle was that I never did get an infection in my womb.  Normally when your water breaks deliver is forced shortly afterwards within a few days because infection sets in.  The doctors told me that waiting that long to deliver after my water had broke had likely broken a UK hospital record.  The good news is that my baby grew from one pound to 3 and 1/2 pounds during those 40 days!  I still remember the day the doctors came into my room and said, "I think this baby is out of the woods.  You are 30 weeks gestation now, and if he were born he would likely be a live healthy birth!"   Today my baby is 18 years old.  I named him Bobby after his daddy.  He is active, healthy and works as a minister to the LORD.  I am so glad that I held on to hope instead of giving way to anger, depression, fears and bitter thoughts.  I was only allowed on my feet for 90 minutes a day for all seven weeks that I spent in the hospital, but, I was able to minister to my room mates, the clean up ladies, the nurses...no matter what the circumstances, God can make a way!

 

If you are discouraged and downtrodden, think about what happened to your hope.  Go back to the place you lost it, and find it again!  Go back to that place where you were criticized, and decide to hang on to hope instead of giving way to the criticism.  Go back to the place you were rejected, and decide to hang on to hope instead of giving way to rejection.  Go back to the place where you failed, and decide to hang on to hope instead of giving way to anger.  Go back to that place where you were hurt, and decide to hang on to hope instead of giving way to bitterness.  Go back to that place where you sinned, and decided to hang on to hope instead of giving way to excuses.  Hang on to your hope!  If you lost your hope, find it again.  God will take the things you have hoped for and make them reality though the gift of FAITH.