Hope.
I love this word!
What are you hoping for right now? What are you anticipating or expecting? Are you holding on to hope or have you perhaps lost hope?
Hope.
It's a beautiful thing!
And if you have lost it, perhaps you should go look for it because today, I want to encourage you to hold on to hope! And not just that, but to get your hopes up!
You all know the phrase, "DON'T get your hopes up!" This reminds me of the story of the Shunammite woman. I am going to paraphrase, but you can find the passage in 2 Kings 4:8-37.
The Prophet Elisha would often travel through Shunem and this well-to-do woman and her husband often invited Elisha to eat with them, eventually making a room just for him to stay in whenever he would pass through.
One night when he stayed there, he asked the woman what he could do for her. While the Shunammite woman said, “I’m good!” His servant Gehazi informed Elisha that she has no son and her husband is old.
So Elisha called for her and told her by that time next year, she would have a son in her arms.
She didn’t believe him. She said, “No, please don’t mislead me!”
But sure enough, a year later, she gave birth to a son.
When the child was a little older, he complained of a headache and died.
So the Shunammite woman went to Elisha where he was on a mountain and she took hold of his feet. Of course good ol’ Gehazi tried to push her away, but Elisha told him to back off and asked her what was wrong.
She said, “Did I ask you for a son? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes?”
So Elisha went to the son, laid down on top of him, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. His body grew warm. Elisha paced back and forth in the room and then stretched out on him again. The boy sneezed seven times and woke up.
I love this story, but what catches me every time is when the woman said, “Don’t raise my hopes.”
Don’t raise my hopes? Why not? When our hope is in the Lord, because of what He has done AND what He has said He will do, we better be getting our hopes up! Get your hopes up!
God wants to do a mighty work in you and me.
So whatever it is, whatever you have been waiting for, be it a baby, a husband or wife, healing, a relationship restored, a house to be sold or to find a new house, for the prodigal son or daughter to return home, to get your finances back in order…
Whatever it is, God is asking you today to get your hopes up! To have long-suffering faith, to persevere! To look back at what the Lord has already done and look forward to what He is going to do because He has proven Himself faithful time and time again!
If you need a reminder of what it means to have long-suffering faith, check out last week's post, Beauty in Suffering, and get ready to hold on...because He is NEVER GOING TO LET YOU DOWN!
Now go spread the hope!
And remember always...
He loves you so incredibly much!