A New Hope Sample

ZOOMING IN

The only way to live an effective day-to-day life here on earth, despite the wrestles and pains of our broken world, is to have a clear BIG-picture perspective. God showed me that when we have a zooming-out perspective, it gives us a zooming-in day-to-day purpose.

The other hope-handle God showed me in my wrestling with hope deferred is how to live with contentment on a day-to-day basis. He told me to wake up each day asking Him one simple question.

“What can I do today to impact your Kingdom?”

You see, when you wake up every day seeking first the Kingdom of God, when you consider daily how to allow God to use you for the advancement of his Kingdom, then it gives your life meaning and purpose every single day, despite your unmet worldly hopes. I began to realize that even if I had remained single until I was 80 with purple hair and many cats, I would have lived a life with meaning and eternal significance. Having a kingdom perspective and daily investing in Kingdom Hopes shifted the painful emotions of unmet worldly hopes. A right-sizing eternal perspective helped me process day-to-day frustrations.

So my encouragement is to live faithfully to your today, no more, no less. Ask God daily how he can use you to bring hope to a hopeless world. It may be a phone call of encouragement, a prayer for a family in distress, a meal for a parent in crisis, or having a tough, truth-giving, restorative conversation.

• Don’t wait to meet the person of your dreams before working on becoming your best version. Start now.
• Don’t wait for a platform opportunity to share a gospel message; share it with the person at the checkout. Start now.
• Don’t wait for mountaintop moments to sing praises of rejoice; sing in the valley on the way up. Start now.

Remember that past and current pain experiences can become preparation for future opportunities. So live faithful to your day-to-day moments. God is the god of multiplication; when you are faithful with little, he will trust you with more. Trust God with your little as you invest it into his Kingdom and see how it changes how you manage the emotions of worldly hopes deferred. This is the wisdom of the second half of Proverbs 13:12, which says that a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

As we align our hearts with God’s kingdom, we start to see dreams fulfilled which is the tree of life. Dreams aligned with God's plans for us that he had for us, even before we were born.

Living in this space is exciting and liberating. I highly recommend it.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:

• Consider ways to invest in God’s kingdom daily with the skills and talents you already have.
• Who are people in your world who you feel God can use to bring a message of hope and encouragement?

PRAY:

Lord, today I choose to be used by you. Please show me how to be your hands and feet in a hurting world. Here I am, Lord use me.