HOW TO MAKE HOPE WORK FOR YOU
This Word of Hope is written to my hero Mike. He is responding to a fellow employee who has just been given a cancer diagnosis. In this respect, HOPE is our ANCHOR! It is not dormant. Rather, it is alive and active for good. Hope is: HELP ME HELP YOU HELP OTHERS. Here are four steps on HOW TO MAKE HOPE WORK FOR YOU.
- Even in dire circumstances, trust the God who made you. Anyone can rejoin God’s family by surrendering to Him, free of charge. I have discovered when all seemed gone, my God was not gone. Hope is a Person. He has invited us to come to Him (Matt. 11:28-30). This is because our souls are rooted in eternity.
- Face the truth and the challenges it brings. Personally, in over 240 oncology visits, not one doctor has lied to me about his diagnosis of my condition.
- Apply a personal mental attitude to your fear or anxiety. I have found this in the Bible and, specifically, in David’s thoughts. He knew much turmoil and likened it to troubled, uncontrollable waters overwhelming his life. His one ray of light in the darkness was that God inexhaustibly loved him, and he called it “a prayer to the God of his life.” Then he could still sing and say God is our hope (Ps. 42:5,11). Without this hope, the heart can be weighed down with anxiety, leading to dismay and depression (Ps. 143:4,7).
- Seek professional medical attention if needed.
The alternative is to live self-pity. Believe me, it is a slimy, bottomless pit, often leading to deeper mire. This is a well into depression and darkness. The only hope is to look up and see the light of God’s presence shining down, however dim. You can grasp God’s hand as He pulls you up into His light. Charles Spurgeon had this to say: “Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes. The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy. Fear not the storm, it brings emotional healing in its wings; and when Jesus is with you in the vessel, the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.” GOD IS OUR HOPE!
Finally, a picturesque clarification of hope says it is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing even though it is still dark. It perches within the soul, actually keeps a heart from breaking, and begins the healing.
This is CROWELL’S LAW OF HOPEFUL HOPE.
