When was the last time you went on vacation? Apparently it’s been proven that we’re at our best just before a vacation because we’re hopeful and excited for the reprieve and fun we’ll have. Serotonin levels are up, and we’re anticipating something awesome. What if we pressed into that feeling every day of our lives?
A couple other verses I love remind us to keep fighting and pressing forward in hope –
1 Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.”
Paul breaks down the way he humbly hopes in God perfectly throughout Philippians 3. Verse 3 first says that He boasts in Christ alone and puts his confidence in Him alone – “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh”. In verses 7-9 He describes how He counts everything in life as loss compared to knowing Jesus and to be found in Him – Pauls identity and his hope:
“7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith”.
Then finally in verses 19-21 he warns us of the things the world put it’s hope in, but it quickly shifts to what waits for us. Our citizenship in heaven when Jesus returns and we are transformed!:
19 “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
I don’t know about you, but I cling to the hope of the day I get to go be with my Savior in heaven. I have every ounce of hope and sit securely in His promises, because they have never failed me. It would be so sad if this life was all there is! To not have Jesus, would be to lose purpose, hope, joy and peace. My hope rests in every promise He gives us in His word, and through the truths that are shared in His word.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have to choose hope, because often times we do. Hope is a byproduct of our faith. We have faith in what we don’t see, that there’s so much more than our physical circumstances and confidently hope in what God is doing, and will do.
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.
Maybe my favorite verse is Romans 15:13. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. A reminder that God is hope and when we trust in that and in Him, joy, peace and hope naturally flow from it. Praying this over those of you reading this!
Let’s choose hope and allow God to fill us with joy and peace! Just like we hope for amazing, fun things for a vacation, let’s press into hopefulness of what God might do with each new day!
Romans 12:12
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”.
Hugs!
Tori

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