Releasing Our Burdens // Letting Go Of Fear And WorrySample

The Fight for Hope

It is hope you fight for. You fight for it with me. I have made you to fight for it, to not be deterred. This is what mobilizes your life—knowing that in everything you do, with my heart in you, it is for hope. And yes, it is a fight. And yes, you are equipped for this fight. You see, I have already brought hope. I have already placed it in your heart. It is also the heartbeat of this world, of all that I have created: hope. 

Do you want me to activate this hope within you now? We can do this. What this takes, first, is your desire for me to activate it—for me to activate hope within you. And yes—if you say ‘yes,’ it is going to take you looking deeper at what has been robbing you of hope—what has been distracting you from remembering that this is for what you are made.

So ask Me, if you want—”What is robbing me of hope? What is pulling me away from it? What is making me believe that what is before me cannot be changed, that there is no other way to perceive a situation?” Look deeper now. Listen to what I tell you. Notice the way I have framed your life, the relationships I give you with others, the work I give you to do, the story of your family, the moments of your childhood that placed within you things you believe are true, so true. There are going to be some things I show you that are hard to see. And I do this—help you remember, help you see what before you could not—to bring you back to Me, to show you what has gotten in the way of this hope I have for you.

Because I want to rewrite situations where you have lost hope, son, daughter.

For always, always, in any situation, in all things—because I am in any situation, because I am in all things—there is hope. So let’s talk about what hope is, and why you want it, why you need it: It is the only place where life resides, child. It is the turning upside down-inside out, what this world works so hard to distort—my love for you, my love for this world, my promise to be with you always, my promise to reach for you, arms wide open, and bring complete healing, complete healing to this broken, broken world.

Hope is the only way healing comes. Hope is the path of mercy, for it ushers in belief that there is more, and that injustice needs to be fought against. And I win. I win in the end. And you can use hope now—you don’t have to wait—to fight against discouragement, reject apathy and, instead, claim the life I have given you. You have work you get to do now, child. Beautiful work—the choice to let me activate hope within you and then act on what happens in your heart afterwards.

Trust that. Trust Me. Let Me show you hope.

It looks and sounds and smells and tastes and feels so differently than what you have imagined.

Hope. Yes?

Exercise:

The brutal battlegrounds that are our lives can make it feel, sometimes, like hope is lost. Or that hope is a thing for everyone else, but not for us. Not you. It can begin to feel like hoping for something better is something you do in dreams and fairy tales and movies. 

One of the tactics of our enemy is to steal hope. When life gets hard, he whispers, "there is no hope." He says it again and again, so many times that we finally relent and agree. 

And we begin saying things like, “This will never change.” “I will never change.” “This problem is too big.” “I am all alone.” These are all agreements we make with the enemy, because God would never agree that there is no hope. He’s all about hope.

I mean, what’s the most hopeless thing you can think of? Death? Jesus conquered that. Evil? He conquered that too. Sin? Yep, that too.

Jesus came to kick off a massive, global restoration project—one in which every wrong, every sin, every hurt, every mistake, every lie will be set right. Everything. All of it. We know the end of the story. There’s nothing here but hope.

But our agreements with the enemy, agreements against hope, toward despair—they are traps. They slow us down, they prolong sin and drag out hurt—and they are designed to.

So, we’ve got to do something. We cannot stand by and let these agreements continue to operate in our lives. We cannot stay in the trap. We’ve got to step up and take action. We must repent and renounce and destroy these agreements, these entrapments.

So, let’s spend a few moments, right now, considering the agreements that might be robbing you of hope. Where in your life have you begun to believe that nothing is ever going to change?

Look deeper now. Consider your relationships, your work, your family, your childhood, this broken world. What’s the most stubborn agreement? What’s the place of, “Okay, God can do a lot, but not that. That will never change.”? Let’s go there.

And now, let’s look to the Father. Your perfect Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you’ll ever understand. Your Father who wants more than anything for you to know the truth.

So, Father, isolate a moment for me now—just one scene, one memory, one situation—right now. Bring a moment to my mind. Show me when and where I was when I began to believe that hope was lost. 

Father, now show me the truth of that moment, the truth I could not and cannot yet see. Reframe the scene for me. Teach me how to see that moment with Your eyes.

Father, tell me more about your son, Jesus. Tell me more about hope. 

Father, I confess there are places in my life where I’ve succumbed to fear and doubt and even despair. I confess I’ve doubted Your goodness and might and love for me. But I don’t want to anymore. I renounce the agreements I’ve made. I break them, in the name of your Son, and declare that I am different. New. I turn my back on the person who gave up on hope. I am someone who believes in hope. I am someone who agrees with truth.

Jesus, right in the middle of this hurt, my frustration, my stubborness, in the dark places of my heart, do what you do best. Bring hope back. Return to me what’s has been stolen. And bind up my broken heart.

Jesus, you be my hope now. I believe in You. I agree with You.