God Is in the Multiplication Business預覽

Get Your Hopes Up

I’ve met many people who, either by their words or their actions, say, “Don’t get your hopes up.” The logic behind that, I suppose, is that if you don’t get your hopes up, then you won’t be disappointed.

That is a terrible way to live. Hope can be defined as “to desire with expectation of obtainment” and “to expect with confidence—trust.” That sounds like a better way to live than dialing back your expectations to nothing just to protect yourself.

I think God wants us to lift up our eyes and heart, and then begin to believe the best. I say get your hopes up as high as you can. Start using your God-given imagination to embrace all the possibilities He has for you.

A heart full of hope brings you joy and peace in believing, and extends the power of the Holy Spirit toward you so that you, in turn, can extend it to others. You should crank your hope in God all the way up! His plans are bigger than anything you can think up. After all, He is the God of increase.

You and I aren’t the same as we were before we knew God. At that time, we were “without Christ, being aliens…and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). That is not who we are now. Redeemed by Jesus, we have become God’s children, and we should act like it. We should hope like it.

What a terrible thing it is to have no hope. How sad that so many people are in that condition today. Christians who have hope should have great compassion on people who have little or no hope. And they should desire to tell lost people about Jesus.

In addition to prompting compassion to rise up in you, I hope that seeing people who have little or no hope makes you realize that you are different—you have hope. You have Christ! You aren’t living life on this planet as a hopeless person.

As you move forward, keep your hope dialed up to high. Always expect God’s supernatural intervention in your life. As children of almighty God, you aren’t limited to a natural way of living, so don’t settle for anything less than the best.