Without this ONE thing even the smallest tasks feel impossible.
Without this ONE thing couples give up on their marriage, parents give up on their teens, leaders give up on their people, people give up on their future.
You can live for 40 days without food, about 3 days without water, and about 8 minutes without air.
You don’t want to go a single second without this ONE thing.
The World Of Sports
I’ve coached football long enough to know that spectacular fourth quarter turnarounds happen.
Coaches inspire their team with, “All it takes is one break! All we need is one play! We’re one turnover away from a comeback! There’s time on the clock so we’ve still got a chance!”
Its late in the 2nd period of an NHL playoff hockey game. One team has dominated all game but their opponents are still hanging around. The coach of the team in the lead challenges his players on the bench, “Don’t give them any reason to hope.”
Real Life
In 2003, when we were relocating our downtown church to “the frontier of NW Edmonton” we faced a ton of discouragement. For three long years.
Favor, it seemed, had bought a ticket out of town.
Then, in January 2004 we held a prayer meeting seeking a breakthrough. The crowd was small. Nothing tangible occurred, other than prayer. We had prayed many times before.
But something did change that night.
Momentum
From that prayer time on we picked up momentum.
City Council approved our construction application.
We sold our excess land.
A buyer came forward for our downtown property.
We broke ground a year later and completed our facility fourteen months after that.
It became easier and easier to envision better days ahead.
HOPE is the most important factor in anyone’s life.
Why?
Anything is possible when you have hope.
When you lose hope, you lose your ability to dream for the future.
When hope enters everything changes.
Three Things Hope Does
1. Hope motivates. Every successful person I know has come back from setbacks. I’ve been on the comeback trail a couple of times. Hope helps you bounce back.
Hope focuses on what can be rather than what is.
Trust Jesus – who was raised from the dead – and experienced the ultimate comeback.
2. Hope initiates. Hope sets you free to dream. Dreams build momentum. Momentum attracts support. Support leads to the fulfillment of dreams.
Persevere, so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what He has promised.
3. Hope liberates. Hope releases you from your fears. You have reason to believe that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
God will send His word and heal you. Find a chapter in the Bible or even one verse to hold on to.
A young man shared with me that what gave him inner strength was reading Psalm 91 out loud every morning. He became so familiar with the passage, he memorized it and was able to meditate on the words during the day.
Let this moment be your beginning of enjoying the power of hope.
More stories about HOPE:
“The Hope Lady”
“Hope Endures”
What have you learned about hope? Please leave a comment below. Thank you.
Hope grows here. We share stories that inspire people, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.
We’d love to have you Subscribe to REVwords. We’ll put helpful content into your inbox Mondays and Fridays.
Amen! I have long thought the best quality I bring as a leader, a friend, a pastor, even a husband and dad is hope.
I receive an email about “devotions for moms” everyday from bible gateway and it encourages me with God’s word and a practical application for my life.
It helps give me strength
Thanks for commenting, Ray. Welcome to Pointes of View! Hope is huge. God bless you in your roles as husband, dad, pastor, leader and friend.
Its great, Christa, that you are intentional about encouraging yourself so you can be an encouragement to your family and the people you serve!
Very cool, inspriational, helpful! Funny, a couple of people told me about Psalm 91 too and I actually was sent a laminated version of it on a small card (with a book I had ordered/purchased through the internet) and I read it every morning as well as it sits on top of my Bible. Very timely article, as there is something I’m hoping for too. Thanks for sharing.
Psalm 91 is powerful isn’t it? I am happy you found strength from the Psalm and from this post. God bless you with what you are hoping for.
God is our hope and we cannot go forward with out Him. I read Psalm 91 everyday as well . It encourages me to know how God loves and will bless me and protect me. Thank you Lord I am not worthy but you are worthy of all honor and glory.
Looks like Psalm 91 is a fav. Thanks for letting me know its importance to you, Cynthia.
HOPE! Great read. I have been looking for a job in my field for 2 years now but I am still hopeful. Hearing testimonies from friends and seeing God at work in other areas of my life gives me hope that if He did it before, He could do it again. Ephesians 3:20
All the best to you with your job search. Keep your trust in God and your hopes up.
My daily source of hope is prayer. I walk my dog every morning and pray. It changes my perspective, helps me let go of hurts, wakes me up to what is truly important, helps me to see things God’s way instead of my way. I pray often these days for God’s grace, God’s will, and God’s favor. I went through a rough patch in my life where I thought all hope was lost. I became sick and made myself even more ill by losing sight of God and all His hope. It was a dark time trying to live without hope. I praise God for the way He restores and is faithful to rebuild lives which gives me hope daily.
I am glad you are well now, Adena! I am also very sure your story of hope sustained will help someone who reads this comment. God’s timely care – God wink. Thank you.
The joy, hope, and provision of our Lord is definitely my source of hope. I am constantly reminded of the word in Matthew about His provision and care and love for us, more than the lilies, by that name being the name of my youngest. After a significant trauma in our lives, I was encouraged to build a “hope” collage, to implement some courage to forge ahead, and build a hope kit, of things that strengthened me somehow with hope. Interesting exercises, as we are all guaranteed to have trials and sufferings! Finding hope allows us to give thanks in all circumstances.
Building a “hope” collage” sounds like an enriching endeavour. Visual reminders are great encouragers to hold onto hope. Thank you for joining the conversation, today!
Hope is more than just a word and something we all need. People say all time “I hope for this'” or “I hope for that ” without realizing what they are saying. They have a deep need for something and don’t know what that is. The past year, 2014, at North Pointe has given me courage and a lot of hope. Now I just need to work on keeping this hope, making it stronger and help others to have hope. I am following the reading plan in the Bible Handbook. Last week I was on week 17 reading through Isaiah. It’s interesting that on Thursday, January 1st, the reading was Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40:31 which has given hope to so many people was perfectly timed for North Pointe’s one word of 2015. This brings me to keeping in mind God’s timing when holding onto to hope. That is something else I have learned over the past year. Don’t give up, be patient, keep hoping. God’s timing is perfect. Pastor Bob, thank you for your courage from 2014 and your hope for 2015.
Thank you bro. Bob for your encouraging its nice to read peoples comments here in your site. I will bereading psalm 91. I pray my god give me strengh. Thank you.
Dear bro Bob I love 2 hear your interesting stories I do have hope. I was reading psalm 91 and I was praying then I fell asleep