Vision for Hope.

There is this resounding question in my heart lately... it's even being asked through conversations with others about their journeys...

The question seems simple, it is simple...

Where is your Hope?

This is the essential question of my life right now. What do I place my hope in? Oftentimes, I think it is in the Lord, but when I come down to wrestling with the deepest questions and fears of my heart, I sometimes find that my hope is in other things... good things... important things...

This became very clear to me yesterday while talking to a good friend. She was feeling hopeless... feeling like she didn't know what to do next in her life... like she is ready to begin her life and doesn't know where to start...

Immediately I felt that now familiar question spring to my heart....

Where is your Hope?

I ask myself again today...

Is your hope in your calling?

Is your hope in relationship?

In your future plans?

In your position?

In your occupation?

Is it in what you do?

Usually it comes down to that... my hope is what I do.... it's in the circumstances of my life working out properly, it's in me pursuing my destiny.

You know, dreaming with God....

But... what if.... God's dream for me was different than I thought....

Incredibly, the truth started to flow out of my heart and into words as I was talking yesterday...

This is what I know to be true, I said...

My hope should be in the Lord alone. When I align myself with Jesus' vision for my life that I would love Him like the Father loves Him and that I would be with Him where He is, I begin to place my hope for glory, for victory, for life itself in Christ alone...

John 15

⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

John 17

²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Colossians 1:27

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

In this place hopelessness cannot have power over me. I will not perish for lack of vision.

John 3

¹⁶"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

It is His promise that if I build my foundation on Christ (in faith believing) I will not perish... In this place I will not perish, instead I will have life abundant and joy that cannot be taken. I am actually stable here.

Romans 5

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in Hope.

Then (and only then) it no longer matters what I am doing.

It could be great exploits or the simplicity of mundane everyday life. I can be steadfast in every season of the soul.

This is what David is talking about in Psalm 1.

³He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.

Rooted and grounded in Something bigger than my fickle emotions...(and oh how fickle they are)

Ephesians 3

¹⁶that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Colossians 2

⁶Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

I can have confidence in this place. My hope is not easily shaken by circumstances in this place. My calling will not define me in this place. My ministry will not take precedence over my relationship to Him. My identity will not be wrapped up in what I do when my vision is first for Him.

The greatest vision I can have for my life is to be with Him where He is. Jesus' promise is that if I join my vision to His, my joy will be complete (john 15).

This gives me perspective for everything. It makes the mundane exciting ....and surrender, the most joyful act of love.

Making His vision my vision produces a living Hope in me that is not easily shaken. This hope produces steadfastness in me.

And....It answers my questions...

what if? What if I never fulfill my dreams? What if I never fall in love? What if I am lonely? What if all my friends leave? What if I never have family? What if I walk through great tribulation? What if I am afraid? What if I am in pain? What if I am poor? What if I never learn anything? What if I never do anything of worth? What if I die? What if, what if?

When I start fall into that unbelief, that endless string of questions, I will look myself in the eye and say to my soul, "Hope in God".

Psalm 42

¹¹ Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Hope that never runs dry. Hope that sustains in all seasons. Hope that gives me vision for the long haul.

Vision=Hope=Steadiness=Love=Vision=Hope.......