Hope Has a Name: His Name Is JesusSample

Everything Must Go Except Hope

I was driving the other day, and while sitting at a red light, I looked on the corner, and a young man was holding and spinning a yellow sign that read, "Everything Must Go." I suspected this was one of those announcements from a store that is having a big sale or is going out of business. As the light turned green and I pulled away, those three words rattled around in my spirit like a nickel in a tin cup, and I asked myself, "What does the Lord want me to know about those three words?"

As I continued driving, I started to think about some issues in my life, an inventory of things that are out of season, items no one else wants, and old objects that take up the space where new things are meant to be placed. Idols, thoughts, worries, doubts, and questions remain folded on shelves and hanging on racks that should have been removed long ago. I asked the Lord to search me and show me what needs to go, so I have room for everything that will allow him to fulfill his plan and purpose for my life.

My dear friends, what if you looked at your bitterness and said, "No, you cannot stay because you're taking up the place where forgiveness should be." Or, to misery, say, "No, you have to go because this is where joy belongs. What if you spoke to despair and said, "You cannot remain here because hope must be put in your place?"

God showed me through that yellow sign that anything that no longer has value or robs you of your hope must go. As we filter our experiences through the lens of the Word of God, we may realize that we have picked up some habits and patterns we shouldn't have. Those things steal our joy and prevent us from advancing in our walk with Jesus.

What are those things for you?

I will be honest with you; the past year has been a difficult one for me. I could fill a jar with the salt from tears of worry and weeping. Perhaps you have also faced troubles and sadness this year, and it is hard to feel hope. I like how Max Lucado describes hope in his book God Came Near, "Hope is not what you'd expect; it is what you would never dream.

It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming ending. Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on God, who loves to surprise us from our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction."

THAT is the kind of hope that God longs for you to have. But to possess that ridiculous kind of hope, some things must be removed. It is time to tell the enemy that you have had enough and that he can't have you any longer. You can break free from what's no longer helpful and run to the Father; for whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.

God has given you too much power and authority to stay in hopelessness any longer.

Let it go!