Get Your Hopes Up!: Expect Something Good to Happen to You Every Day (12 page)

If you’ve found yourself stuck in life because of pain, an uncertainty, or a disappointment, I want to encourage you to get up and get moving. It may not be easy, but you can do it. Press through the things that would keep you stuck. Decide to do something rather than nothing. Be obedient to what the Lord is asking you to do.

God wants to deliver you from the quicksand of discouragement and hopelessness! So go ahead and get your hopes up. Even if you can’t see it right now, God has a wonderful plan for your life. You’re not going to hurt forever; you have a bright future ahead of you. Don’t play possum another moment.

I pray that you are beginning to see the power of hope and that you are realizing that your hope and happiness are closely linked. You cannot have faith without hope because hope is a positive expectation that something good is going to happen. I tried to exercise what I thought was faith for many years, but I had a negative attitude about life, and that certainly is not hope.

I was also unhappy much of the time, even though I was a Christian, had a lovely family, and was in full-time ministry. I didn’t understand what was wrong and made the mistake most of us make, which is to think that if “things” would just change, then we could be happy. I was trying to use my faith to get God to change
things
, but I failed to realize that He wanted to change
me
much more than He wanted to change my circumstances.

He wanted me to learn to be happy in any situation, and that is possible only if we make a decision to be hopeful—to live with the happy anticipation that something good is about to happen to us, through us, and all around us.

As I mentioned, I am referring to this book as “The Happy Book”! I truly believe that if the principles in these pages are applied to your life, they will release any bottled-up joy you have been unable to uncork until now.

Keep saying “Something good is going to happen to me today” and “Something good is going to happen through me today.”

There is a story of three men who found themselves working on a rather exceptional job site. These men were simple laborers who had been hired to help build a magnificent London cathedral already under construction. This cathedral had been designed by the renowned architect Sir Christopher Wren and was anticipated to be an architectural masterpiece. Writing about the rising cathedral, a London journalist asked the three men this simple question: “What are you doing here?” The first man answered, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.” The second man replied, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.” But the third man gave a different answer altogether: “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”
¹

Isn’t it amazing how your attitude can affect your outlook on life? What you choose to believe matters. The first worker believed money was the primary thing. When asked about his job, how much
(or how little) he was making was the first thing he talked about. The second worker believed his time was of the utmost importance. When he was asked to describe what he was doing, he naturally talked about the many hours he spent working on the job. But the third worker chose to look past the money earned and the time involved. He didn’t see this project as just another job. He saw it as a wonderful opportunity—a chance to build a great cathedral. He saw the best in his situation, and that caused him to be excited and joyful about the task at hand.

I believe one of the most valuable things you can do in order to live a hope-filled, joyful, overcoming life is to believe the best in every situation. That’s not always easy to do. It’s natural to find fault and assign blame—our flesh does that automatically. But seeing and believing the best is a choice. It’s a decision you make to change the default setting in your life from negative to positive. Instead of assuming the worst, believe the best. Believe the best about your co-worker. Believe the best about your church. Believe the best about your spouse. Believe the best about your health. Believe the best about your children. Believe the best about your future. You’d be amazed at how your entire outlook on life will change by simply believing the best about the people and the situations in your life.

Jesus gave us a new commandment, and that is to love one another as He has loved us. God’s Word teaches us that love always believes the best (1 Corinthians 13:7). Actually, the Scripture says that love is “ever ready to believe the best” of everyone. Set your mind each morning to believe the best all throughout the day. I think it is something that we must do on purpose!

You can be like the first two laborers who showed up to work each morning seeing only a small paycheck and a long day ahead. They had uninspired attitudes and a dull outlook on life. Or you can be like the third worker who saw an opportunity instead of
an obligation. He believed what he was doing was important, and he was excited about his assignment each day. It’s simply a matter of perspective. All three had the same job, but only one actually enjoyed it.

Anytime I start finding it difficult to stay positive about what I am doing, it helps me tremendously to remember that I am serving Christ.

Hope and cynicism can’t coexist. This is why it is so important to believe the best about the people in your life and the tasks you face from day to day—when you do, hope thrives and cynicism dies. If you’ll say good-bye to a critical spirit and a complaining attitude, you’ll discover an exciting new level of joy. You’ll begin to appreciate the people you once took for granted, and you’ll begin to see daily tasks as opportunities rather than obligations. It’s amazing how a simple adjustment in perspective—choosing a godly perspective—can change your life.

Most people who are unhappy in life are unhappy because they focus on unhappy things. They see the worst in others, they talk about everything that’s wrong in life, and they generally have a negative disposition. But hope does the opposite—hope sees the best, not the worst. That’s why hope brings happiness. When you’re expecting God to
do something good, you can’t help but be happy. Many people who are discouraged and frustrated in life feel that way simply because they’re not expecting anything good to happen.

A lot of tragically painful and abusive things happened to me in the early years of my life, and because of that, I never really knew what it was like to be happy. At the age of 23, I married Dave, and after a few weeks, I remember him asking “What is wrong with you? Why are you so negative about everything?” I told him, “Well, if you don’t expect anything good to happen, you won’t be disappointed when it doesn’t.” Can you imagine anybody saying that? Well, I said it, and I meant it at that time in my life.

Those words had become my philosophy in life. I thought I was protecting myself from being hurt and disappointed by not expecting anything good to happen. I could spot the negative in almost any situation because that was what I was used to experiencing. Thankfully, over the years, God has taught me a lot about hope. He’s changed my attitude and shown me the importance of setting my mind and keeping it set on Him and His Word. I’m no longer a person who expects bad things to happen. I do what I am urging you to do. I purposely look for and expect good things. I also take time regularly to recount anything good that I notice God has done for me or through me. The more you become aware of God’s goodness, the more you will live each day with excitement and expectation.

Hope has everything to do with attitude. And I think that with God’s help, you and I can have a positive attitude about everything that happens in life… no matter what the situation is. If you want to be a person full of hope and happiness, no matter what happens during the course of your day, choose to trust God and have a positive outlook by believing the best in any situation.

Whatever unexpected challenge or frustration you may face, decide in advance that you’re not going to let it steal your joy. Being unhappy does nothing except make you miserable, so don’t waste your time with it. Don’t let the daily events of life determine what kind of life you’re going to live. Choose to smile even in the midst of irritating circumstances, and refuse to let something as silly as a traffic jam or a bad hair day keep you from enjoying your life.

Seeing the best in any situation and keeping a positive outlook is possible only because of the promises found in God’s Word. In Romans 8:28 (NIV), the apostle Paul says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Notice that the verse doesn’t say God works
some
things together for your good; it says
all
things. Every situation, every encounter, every trial, every frustration—God is going to work it
all
out for your good.

God can even take the most difficult things you’ve been through and use them for your good. Isaiah 61:3 (NKJV) says that He will give you “beauty for ashes” and “the oil of joy for mourning.” God
didn’t cause the pain or the dysfunction you’ve suffered, but He can heal your wounds and use what you’ve been through to accomplish something beautiful—for your life and for others.

I have personally found that believing God will work something good out of any current dilemma I am experiencing really helps me get through it with a hopeful attitude. It is a wonderful promise that I have seen work time after time just the way God promises. It worked for me when I had breast cancer, in overcoming sexual abuse in my childhood, when friends I trusted turned against me, and in countless other situations. Whatever you may be going through right now, believe and say “God will work this out for my good,” and you will feel a lift in your mood.

If I were to ask you “What is one of the most difficult times to be happy and hopeful?”—there’s a good chance you would tell me it’s when you’re waiting on God to answer a prayer or meet a need. It could even be when you’re waiting in traffic, or waiting for your spouse to get ready to go somewhere with you and you are late. It may be when you are waiting in a line at the grocery store and the clerk is new and taking a long time to check out your groceries. It might be waiting for changes in people you have prayed for, or even breakthroughs in habits you have struggled with. It’s never easy to wait, but it’s something we all have to do at times in our lives. I’ve known a lot of people who lose all peace and joy while they’re waiting. One of the people I know very well, because the person is me! Thankfully, I have made progress over the years, but I am still growing in “waiting well.”

I believe we can experience the joy of the Lord even in the times when we’re waiting. It all depends on how we
choose to wait. Isaiah 40:31 says: “But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength.…” You can be strengthened in the waiting process, but only if you wait with hope—expecting, looking, and hoping in Him. There’s no benefit from being frustrated, impatient, and miserable while you’re waiting on God. But if you’ll have an attitude of expectation and anticipation, the season of waiting can actually be a great time in your life. Even when we are waiting in a line at the grocery store, we can choose to believe the best by believing that our time is in His hands, as He says in Scripture. Perhaps God is saving us from some accident by delaying our departure, or He may be using the discipline of “divine delay” to help us mature spiritually.

You may be praying and waiting for financial provision, a physical or emotional healing, a spouse, a career opportunity, or a child to return home. Whatever it is, you can have joy in the waiting if you’ll believe the best… even before you receive it. Kind of like this boy:

I love this simple story and the hope of this young boy. The assumption is that this Little Leaguer should be upset and discouraged. His team is getting creamed, and it’s still the first inning. Things aren’t looking very good as he and his teammates wait for their turn to bat.

But rather than getting negative and depressed about what things look like in the waiting process, this young baseball player chose to have a different attitude. He believed the best, assuming that his
team was going to score more than 18 runs when his period of waiting was over. Instead of getting discouraged while he waited, he got excited.

If you’re waiting on something today, don’t let the external appearances steal your hope and crush your joy. It might not look like the relationship can be restored, it might not look like the finances will come in, it might not look like the condition will change, it might not look like things are going to work out—but instead of getting discouraged while you’re waiting, get excited. You haven’t had your turn to bat yet. Believe the best. Trust that God is going to supply exactly what you need at the very moment you need it. If you’ll determine to believe the best, even before you see the results, times of waiting can be exciting seasons of hopeful anticipation.