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There’s a very well-known verse in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that says:
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
And you know, we talk and think a lot about faith and love. We hear many sermons on faith and love. We know we need to build our faith and learn to love better. But how often have you even talked about hope? Did you ever hear a sermon on hope or go to a Bible study on hope? Have you ever intentionally worked at building your hope, growing in your hope, becoming a more hope-filled person? Yet, God says it’s one of the three things that remain, and therefore it should have a place of importance in our lives, don’t you think? God places a high value on hope, and so should we.
A book by Ray Johnston entitled The Hope Quotient really caught my attention as I read it. I highly recommend the book to you because Johnston presents a compelling case for the importance of building our hope, maintaining our hope, making sure our hope is not crushed by life. I don’t have to tell you that it’s not easy to remain hopeful in this evil world, is it? Just think of the days when your hope has been dashed. It makes you want to give up; it saps your energy and drains your enthusiasm. And if you are not prepared to build your hope, to unleash hope even in the face of disappointments, you will find yourself sitting on the sidelines of life, discouraged and depressed way too often.
So, today I want to give you just a taste of some of the things that are covered in this book, The Hope Quotient, and hopefully encourage you to realize that you can, through Christ, unleash hope in your life in a new and exciting way. I can tell you that this book study has given me a new understanding of the importance of unleashing hope in my life.
Let me begin by making sure we know what hope is and what it isn’t. First, hope is much more than an emotion you feel. It is not wishful thinking or blind optimism. The kind of hope we’re focusing on comes from God through Jesus Christ, so you need to be a Christ-follower in order to tap into the hope he gives. You unleash this hope through the power of Christ in you. It’s not something you just work up on your own. It requires more power than you have in yourself, but if you know Jesus as your Savior, you have what is required to unleash hope in your life through the Holy Spirit and through Scripture.
Sadly, however, many Christ-followers are not unleashing hope in their lives, and they live in a state of discouragement and quiet desperation. Does that describe you? If you’re not doing what you need to do to keep hope alive in your heart and mind, you’re missing one of the greatest gifts, one of the greatest advantages we have as Christ-followers. We read in Hebrews that we have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure. An anchor is something that holds a boat or ship in place, keeping it from moving. Hope for a Christian provides an anchor of strength and support in the midst of this stormy world we live in. Hope is the thing that will keep you from going under.
So, what I’d like to do now is give you a taste of some of the very practical and biblical advice from this book, which I believe will help you begin to understand the importance of unleashing hope in your life and give you some tools to make that happen. I’ve often said that discouragement is the devil’s most effective tool in our lives. Hope is the cure for discouragement. It’s so very important.
In his book, Ray Johnston says that “Becoming a person with hope—defeating discouragement and building a new future—is always a result of raising seven hope factors. . .” I want to emphasize two of the seven factors that will unleash hope in your life.
The first one is: “Recharge Your Batteries.” If hope is to be unleashed in your life, you have to continually replenish the things in your life which fuel you. When you run out of fuel, all your expertise and giftedness and experience are pretty useless. So, to unleash hope, you must make sure your batteries are continually recharged. You won’t find a better future if you’re running on an empty tank.
So, let me ask you: What or who is it in your life that is draining you? Simply knowing what drains you is step one in developing a plan to refuel your batteries. I have a dear friend who recently recognized that a relationship in her life—a long-time friend—was draining her. This relationship was no longer helpful or pleasant; instead, it was unhealthy and getting worse. We had a long talk and I encouraged her to put distance between herself and this person. Now, that wasn’t easy, as you can imagine, but she did it—in as loving a way as possible—and now she realizes just how much that relationship had been draining her. Now she is like a butterfly set free from its cocoon.
So, one of the things that will drain you is: Unhealthy people. These are the people you have to recover from after you’re around them. Obviously, I’m not talking about little irritations that happen in any relationship. If you can only have perfect friends, you won’t have any friends—right? But if you want to unleash hope in your life, your primary relationships need to be with people who build you up.
Another thing that can drain you is unkind critics. As Ray says in his book, “We all have people in our lives who think they have a ‘spiritual gift’ of criticism and want to ‘help’ the Holy Spirit. It helped me when I heard a speaker use an old expression this way: ‘Listening to your critics is like bobbing for apples in a vat of acid.” So, his advice is to avoid unkind critics in order to keep spiritually charged.
Is your schedule totally out of balance? If so, that is a major drain on your hope. If you have allowed your life to become so totally out of balance that you’re burning the candle at both ends, you’re not as bright as you think you are!
Unnecessary or false guilt is another major hope-killer. I’ve written a book on guilt—Why Do I Always Feel Guilty?—because I recognized I was living under a load of false guilt and so are lots of other people. One of the unhealthiest things you can do is allow a cloud of guilt to hang over your head. If it’s true guilt, confess it and forsake it, whatever “it” is. If it’s false guilt, recognize that the enemy of your soul is using it to defeat you. Resist him and get rid of the false guilt. Enthusiasm and guilt cannot coexist.
One final thing that will kill your hope is to allow your mind to be exposed to wrong input—wrong movies, wrong thoughts, wrong conversations, wrong reading material, wrong internet sites. You and I think about what we expose our minds to. As Ray says, “What enters your mind repeatedly will be revealed in your character and life.” He calls it the law of exposure, and he says it is as predictable as the law of gravity. What you expose your mind to shapes you and ultimately shapes your actions, character, and destiny.
So, to unleash hope in your life, you have to get rid of hope killers like these. Then, of course, you need to take positive steps to build and maintain hope. Remember that when you are feeling hopeless, it’s because you’ve allowed some hope killers to remain, or you intentionally haven’t been doing the things that keep hope alive and well. What things? Here are some suggestions from the book, The Hope Quotient:
- Invest in your own growth.
When was the last time you did something to invest in your own growth and development. Paul wrote to young Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. I often pray these very words, that God will show me how and help me to fan into a flame the gifts he has given me. Not to ever settle for mediocrity or just okay. But that takes commitment and time and effort. Claiming you don’t have time is just an excuse for remaining drained and hopeless.
- Understand the power of worship.
Ray writes that “Worship takes you to heights where worry, anxiety, stress and fear wither away and cease to gnaw at your life.” And worship, of course, is not just what you do in a church building. It is a daily practice of taking the focus off yourself and your to-do list, and spending time thinking about and worshiping the God who created you.
- Unleash the Bible into your life.
You cannot unleash hope into your life without truly making God’s word the centerpiece of your life. It is the most powerful catalyst for spiritual growth. You will be hopeless without it. A dear friend is right now going through some very deep waters, and many of us are surrounding her with love and support. But I said to her, “Make sure you get into the Word and stay there. When you can’t sleep, read the Bible. When your heart is breaking, read the Bible. It will restore your hope.”
- Build great relationships.
This is so very important for all of us. We need people who are on our side. Loneliness is rampant in our culture today. If you are isolating and basically trying to go it alone, you will find yourself fighting discouragement and hopelessness a lot. Ecclesiastes 4:10 says: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. I hope you have at least one really good friend to help you. If not, look for that kind of friend—and be that kind of friend.
Your hope has to be renewed daily. The world and the enemy of your soul are continually trying to steal your hope, and that steals your joy. It destroys your strength and makes you weak. Will you say with the Psalmist:
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. Psalm 33:20
Remember, hope is a choice you make, not an emotion you feel. You can unleash the power of hope in your life, through Jesus and to his glory. But you have to be willing to get rid of the things that drain you and practice the principles that put hope into your life.