Get Your Hopes Up!: Expect Something Good to Happen to You Every Day (18 page)

I have to admit, I’m not much of a hiker. You may be, but it’s not really my cup of tea. I’d much rather spend a weekend hanging out with my kids than exploring forest or mountain trails. But I’ve been told that when hikers get turned around and they’re trying to figure out exactly where they are, they look to go higher. A higher vantage point gives them a better perspective. Whether they have to climb a tree, scurry up a hill, or scale a large boulder, hikers go higher. They’ve learned that the higher they go, the farther they can see.

I think the same is true for you and me today. Sometimes it’s hard to see where we’re going because we have limited vision. We can get confused by our surroundings and unsure where to go next because we don’t have the right perspective. Our hope and direction are diminished by a canopy of past failures, a fog of low expectations, and canyons of despair.

In order to get God’s perspective, you need to go higher. You hike past ingratitude; you climb above doubt and discouragement. If you’ll choose higher expectations and higher hopes, I believe you’re going to start to get a new perspective—a godly perspective. And when that happens, you’re going to be able to see farther than you ever have before.

You can determine what kind of life you are going to live based on the way you choose to look at yourself and the situations in your life. If you look at your faults and failures, thinking those are the
things that define you, you’re not going to hope that God will do much in your life. And if you look at and talk about your problems constantly, they’re going to seem too big to overcome, and you’re going to find that hope is a hard thing to hold on to.

But thankfully, there is a different perspective. God’s perspective for you and for your life is a better perspective… and it is the only one that really matters. When God looks at you, He is full of love, and He has already put together a great plan for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) says, “ ‘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.’ ” So go ahead and get your hopes up. God has blessed you in the past, and He promises to bless you in the future. Any time you’re not sure how it’s all going to work out, just go outside at night and look up at the stars. God kept His promise to Abraham, and He’s going to keep His promises to you too.

It’s wonderful to know that hope is here—it’s available to you and to me today. But in order to live in the reality of that truth, there is an enemy of hope we will need to defeat: worry.

Worry is a bitter foe of hope. It’s impossible to be full of hope and full of worry at the same time. You have to choose one, because the two are diametrically opposed. Hope sees all the good things that can happen; worry manifests as evil forebodings. It is concerned that something bad may happen. Worry and fear work hand in hand, and leave us thinking that if we can just figure out what to do about our situation, perhaps we can put an end to the difficulty. And even though the Bible tells us repeatedly that worry
is useless and not to do it, it is one of the greatest temptations we deal with. Making the transition from trusting in our own selves to solve our problems and totally trusting in God to do it takes time.

I came across an illustrated story that demonstrates the key to overcoming worry and living in the fullness of hope…

What a great illustration of how to find peace, even in the midst of the storm. This little girl was never afraid or anxious because she trusted that her dad knew what he was doing. Everyone else was focused on the storm around them, panicking and worrying that they weren’t going to make it. But those thoughts never occurred to this little girl. In her mind, her dad was in total control the whole time—she didn’t have anything to worry about.

If you want to overcome worry in your life, I encourage you to take on the same attitude. Instead of assuming the worst whenever things get difficult, have the faith to sit back and relax. There might be some turbulence, and the people around you might show signs of fear, but you know something they might not know… your Heavenly Father is the pilot. There’s no way He is going to let you go down. He’s been in control the whole time.

Romans 8:24–25 says this about hope:

What is composure? It means our emotions are under control. When somebody gets emotionally distraught, you might say to them, “Compose yourself.” The Bible teaches that hope will allow us to wait on God with an attitude of patience and composure. In other words, while we’re waiting on God, we can remain calm. We won’t be frantic and fearful, and even if we are tempted in that way, we can overcome it by remembering that God loves us and will not leave us forsaken. Don’t merely “try” not to be upset, but, instead, face the worrisome thoughts with reminders of how God has delivered you in the past, and know that He will do it again. We may be struck down, but we are never struck out!

Hope brings a level of peaceful calm and composure. Hope says, “I don’t see the answer to my situation yet with my natural eyes, but by faith I believe that God is working.” Always remember that worry is a total waste of energy. It wears us out mentally and emotionally and does absolutely no good. Worry changes nothing except us! It confuses us when we frantically search in our mind for answers to problems that only God has answers for. God is not the author of confusion, He is the Prince of Peace. He wants you to live in hope so that even on days when it seems like everything around you is spinning out of control, you can be firm in your belief that something good is going to happen. Believe it, meditate on it, speak it, and encourage others who are also facing trials.

Imagine a set of parents sitting at their son’s soccer game. One of these parents is a chronic worrier, and the other is not. The worrying parent assumes the worst; the other parent believes for the best.

Now, their son is in second grade—and he’s running around, kicking the ball, and having a great time. All of a sudden, he turns around, runs into an opposing player, falls down, and scrapes his knee. This, of course, causes the normal shedding of a few tears, and all the other kids wait while the scraped knee is attended to. Both parents look intently onto the field to make sure their son is okay (which he is), but their outlook on life causes them to have drastically different reactions.

The parent who lives with patience and composure watches carefully as the coach goes out to check on the child. This parent has a level of concern, as any parent would, but when it’s apparent the boy is merely in need of a Band-Aid and some orange wedges, this parent gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up and encourages the boy to enjoy the rest of the game. This optimistic parent isn’t unaware of the situation but refuses to be unsettled and unnerved just because there is a possibility of an injury. There is a healthy and happy anticipation of good rather than an unhealthy and miserable dread that something bad is going to happen.

The worrying parent has a completely different reaction. This parent charges the field wildly. Before the coach, or even the referee, can check to see if the boy is all right, the worrying parent is already there, frantically examining the knee and wondering how much the hospital bill is going to cost. Keep in mind, it’s just a scraped knee, but a worrier has very little composure. This parent makes a big scene, carrying the boy off the field, rushing to the car, imagining the child in a cast and with crutches.

Maybe you’ve witnessed scenes like this play out in the lives of people around you (or maybe in your own life). People who fall apart at the first sign of trouble often say, “Well, I’m just a worrier,” excusing their reactions like it’s just a personality trait. But worry
is a weapon of the enemy meant to steal your joy and the joy of all those around you. It’s not a personality quirk; it is based on fear and a failure to trust in God.

You don’t have to go through life fearing the worst. You don’t have to become frantic and get out of control emotionally with every scraped knee. You can live with a hopeful assurance that things are going to be okay. In fact, they’re going to be better than okay—they’re going to be great! God is in control, and when you trust His plan for your life, hope, peace, and composure will be the natural results. None of this means that we won’t have to deal with unpleasant circumstances, or that everything in life will be the way we would like it to be, but it does mean that we can choose to believe the best or to believe the worst—it is up to us!

People, including Christians, can have a big problem with a lack of stability—and that lack of stability comes because of worry and fear. Worry causes people to be up and down emotionally, and their minds may run wild with erratic thoughts. You never know what you’re going to encounter with family members or friends who tend to worry. Their emotions are based on the events of the day, so they are unpredictable and unreliable. They don’t mean to be this way; this is just what worry does. They would like to be calm, but they mistakenly think that the only way they can be calm is if all their circumstances are pleasant.

I spent many years in emotional ups and downs, and I prayed constantly for God to fix my problems so I could be peaceful. Now I know that God’s goal for us is that we are peaceful in the storm as Jesus was. Why doesn’t God just remove our problems? After all, He could if He wanted to. The answer is simply that we are in the world, and in the world there will be tribulation (John 16:33). To never have any difficulty, we would have to get out of the
world altogether. For now this is where we are. Being here is not always easy, but God has equipped us with everything we need to stay calm and enjoy life no matter what.

I am encouraging you in every chapter of this book to expect good things, but that doesn’t mean that we should have unrealistic expectations. It is unrealistic to expect people to be perfect and never hurt you, or to expect that every day of your life things will be exactly as you want them to be. Believing that good things are going to happen will help you navigate the storms of life and still arrive at your destination. We go through things, but thank God that we
“go through.”
Going through may not be pleasant, but it sure is better than staying stuck and never making it through.

I don’t wake up expecting problems, but I am aware that they may come, and I have already set my mind to stay full of hope and have a positive expectation that things will work out for good! We are more than conquerors, and to me that means we can have assurance of victory even before we have a problem. “Victorious” becomes our new identity! We don’t need to live with a victim mentality because we are assured that in the end, we always win!

Being fully convinced of these things allows us to be stable and calm. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, the apostle Paul says that we can be “firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” What a great description of what it means to follow Jesus. This is exactly how a person who has made God the foundation of his life can live. “Firm,” “steadfast,” and “immovable” are characteristics we develop as a result of setting worry aside and consistently deciding to live in hope.

Hope brings strength and stability to your life. When you have confidence that God is in control and He is going to do something great in your situation, you’re not tossed around wildly by the
storms of life; instead, you are anchored and secure because your hope is in the Lord.