The God Kind of Hope!

I’ve been hearing – anchor yourself in hope. Stay in hope. Hope/expect good things and this caused me to think, ponder and look up some biblical definitions of hope.

See, I have always thought of hope as being wishy washy – like maybe it will or maybe it won’ But on the contrary! The Apostle Paul wrote much of hope, and he was not an unstable man nor was he wishy washy in any way.

I looked up hope in the Strong’s Concordance online today and here are the biblical definitions of hope:

Cord, hope, expectation, things hoped for – outcome, to have possession or possess, ANCHOR, safeguard, firm – that which can be relied on, certain true, steadfast, stable, securely, to wait, expect and tarry, hope in the WORD, expectation of good! (expect good things!) joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation, the author of hope, or HE who is its foundation, the thing hoped for, REFUGE, shelter, (from storm or danger), trust, confidence, act of confiding, object of confidence, STATE of CONFIDENCE, security, to hope, in a religious sense, to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence, hopefully to trust in, to have, possess or lay hold of. (Capitalized words are my emphasis)

WOW – I don’t see wishy washy anywhere in the definitions above!

So, when I read Zech 9:12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
Or Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

I know that God is telling me that His hope is my Stronghold, my anchor!

Over a year ago, while fretting one day, God said to me “why can’t you expect good things?” and I noticed in the meanings of HOPE – expectation was a part of this.

Psalm 43:5 – Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God! Hope there means to EXPECT and WAIT! So we can read this verse this way – Why am I discouraged and my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God, I will expect Him to deliver me and and I wait for Him to answer my prayer!

We can read Zech 9:12 like this – Return to your fortress you prisoners of hope, of expectation of things to come; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you!

Or how about Hebrews 6:19 – We have this hope, we possess it, we lay hold of this hope, this confidence, as an anchor for the soul, (mind, will and emotions), firm and secure! What is this hope? If you read the previous verses it is talking about the promise God made to Abraham and that He cannot lie – to grab onto THAT HOPE that He has set before us.

One more scripture, which up until lately, when I heard it preached correctly, I had this verse all wrong! It’s the scripture Hope deferred makes the heart sick – Proverbs 13:12. The minister said – it’s not thing thing we are hoping for being deferred that makes the heart sick, but hope itself being deferred. In other words, when we quit hoping, we get heartsick. WOW. This is why God is saying to us stay anchored in HOPE!

God is saying – Grab onto HOPE!

Find your promise in the Word of God and possess it, grab onto it, expect it, wait for it, tarry, allow it to build your confidence, let it ANCHOR your soul, your mind your will and your emotions, and stand firm in your faith! An anchor will keep a ship from being moved off course in a storm, it will keep it safe.

I know we have all had disappointments, but those disappointments come from people who are not perfect, and from our own misunderstandings, or our own human reasonings which are flawed. God will never and has never let us down! His ways are perfect and higher than ours. So, determine right now to release the disappointments, repent if you have blamed God, release others from fulfilling your expectations (big one!) and set your heart to expect, hope in and wait for the Lord! Rehearse and immerse yourself in the Word of God. Find your scripture (your legal right to what you expect and desire) and confess it, dissect it, look up the meanings of the words in the verse and get it down into your spirit, let it be your anchor.

Let’s get our hopes up! Let’s anchor ourselves to the true hope of the world – Jesus! His word will not fail. It is the anchor for our souls!