Get Your Hopes Up!: Expect Something Good to Happen to You Every Day (5 page)

With God’s help, we can do what seems impossible if we will not be afraid to try.

Some of the world’s most well-known people had a “can do” attitude and they did amazing things. Here are quotes from a few of them:

Don’t allow your mind to become a hindrance to the things you can accomplish in life. Think big, as God does! You are going to think something, so why think something little? I believe a lot of people are afraid to think big because they don’t want to be disappointed, but I would rather take a chance on being disappointed occasionally than live a disappointing life because I never tried.
Everything that has never been done is impossible until someone does it, so why can’t it be you?

We have a successful prison ministry, and over the past 16 years, our team that visits prisons has been in over 3,200 prisons and distributed 2.7 million of my books along with hygiene gift bags. We have visited every state prison in the United States, and yet when we first attempted it, we were told it was impossible. The first state prison board we contacted for permission to go into every prison in that state said, “That is impossible—nobody has ever done that!”

Dare to dream and your dreams just might come true! Dream of nothing and you are sure to get everything you failed to dream. You can read this book and hopefully finish it with the thought
That was a good book. I feel more hopeful
. But I urge you not to merely continue on with life as usual. Let the words in this book be a catalyst for greater things in your life. Have bigger hopes, dream big, and think big. Somebody is going to do it, and it may as well be you!

I believe God wants to help you break free from the cage of
can’t
. You can receive hope today, maybe for the first time. Whatever challenge or opportunity lies before you, you can succeed—because God is with you, and He will give you all the strength you need. The negative words from others are no match for the promises of God and His presence in your life. When God is for you, it doesn’t matter who or what is against you (see Romans 8:31).

Go ahead and get your hopes up. You may have failed in the past, but you can overcome today. You may have made mistakes in the past, but you can make wise decisions today. You may have given up in the past, but you can persevere today. You may have been
hesitant in the past, but you can be bold today. People may have told you “you can’t” in the past, but today, you can. Break out of the cage that has kept you from enjoying God’s best in your life. Soar higher into the plans and purposes He has for you. And if things get difficult, don’t worry or be afraid. You CAN do it!

When I talk to people about hope, I’ve discovered many of them have a misconception as to what hope really is. And if you don’t understand what something is or how it works, things can fall apart quickly.

This reminds me of a funny story someone shared with me about the challenges of coaching his four-year-old son’s soccer team. He said he showed up at the soccer fields for the first practice of the season a little nervous. He’d never coached soccer before, and none of the children had ever played soccer before, so he knew he had his work cut out for him. The kids all showed up on time, wearing their brand-new cleats, kicking their shiny, multicolored soccer balls. Everyone seemed excited.

This rookie coach gathered the four-year-old teammates into a huddle while proud and doting parents snapped picture after
picture on their phones, quickly posting “First practice of the year!” photos to social media sites for all to see. The coach explained to the children they were going to have a “great season,” and in every practice they were going to play “fun games” to help each of them learn the skills of soccer. The kids cheered at the mention of games, so the coach decided to begin practice with a relay drill. He said, “Okay, kids. Today we’re going to have a relay race!” The kids shouted in unison, “Hooray!” Feeling confident by the enthusiastic response of these preschoolers, the coach lined the children up in two lines, instructing them to dribble the ball down to the cone and then dribble back. He said, “It’s just like a relay race, the only difference is you’re kicking a soccer ball.” Again the kids squealed in delight.

“Are you ready, kids?” the coach exclaimed. “Yeeeesssss!” the kids shouted in unison. “On your mark… Get set… GO!”

When the coach yelled, “GO!” pandemonium broke loose. Instead of the first player from each line running down to the cone while the other children waited their turns (normal relay race behavior), all of the children began sprinting in every direction at once. They heard “GO”… so they went! There was no order, no structure—just chaos. It took the coach, with the help of several bewildered but laughing parents, a solid 10 minutes to corral the children—pulling some off the goal posts, retrieving others from the concession stand, and finding one confused child on another field trying to join a rival team.

When the coach got home from practice that night, feeling more tired than he’d ever felt in his life, he told his wife (an elementary school teacher) about the fiasco. “I lined them up,” he said, “I explained we were going to have a relay race. I shouted, ‘On your mark… get set… GO!’ How could that go wrong?” His wife laughed to herself and explained to her confused husband that the children on his team were only four years old; they weren’t in elementary school yet. These children probably hadn’t been taught the rules of
a relay race because they hadn’t been in group settings with team competitions. The only things those preschoolers heard were “race” and “GO!”—so that’s exactly what they did. They misunderstood the race, and the result was frustration and disorder.

As I think about that story, I realize that just as those children misunderstood the race, many people misunderstand hope, and the result is frustration and disorder. There are a lot of people who think hope is a passive word—something of a lazy emotion. They incorrectly assume if they sit around passively, just hoping things will get better, then maybe they will. But hope is not a sit-back-and-do-nothing feeling. It’s more than a daydream or a wishful thought. If this is your understanding of hope, you’re going to be uncertain about what you want and are not likely to get it.

Hope energizes us and motivates us to take action. As I said before, it’s the happy, confident expectation of good, and that happy, confident expectation of good causes you to step out in faith and to act in obedience with God’s Word. Hope is too exciting to be passive. Hope believes boldly, decides daringly, speaks firmly, and perseveres passionately.

There is no inaction with hope, because there is no inaction with God. God is always moving and working in your life, and He wants you to move in obedience with Him. A lazy, procrastinating, passive person is never a happy person. When you understand the power of hope, you’re a person ready and excited to move in faith and do what needs to be done when the time is right.

At times we may be waiting on God, but true waiting is not passive, it is very active in the spirit realm. We are
expecting
God to do great things. There are countless Scripture verses that speak of waiting on God, and in the Amplified translation of the Bible, each of those places says to “wait on and expect the Lord.” I love that because it clarifies that we need to be actively expecting God to
work in our lives. We need to be ready to move at a moment’s notice from God, and while we are waiting, we are full of hopeful confidence that God is planning something big and wonderful for us. All you need to do is think of a pregnant woman who is expecting a baby! She is planning, dreaming, preparing, talking about, and thinking continually about the baby who is on the way.

When you read the book of Psalms, one of the first things you notice is that David was a man full of hope and expectation. You can hear it in the lyrics he wrote. Here are just a few examples:

Whether he was tending sheep in the fields, leading a band of renegade soldiers, or ruling as king over Israel, David always lived with hope that God was going to do something amazing in his life. But David’s hope didn’t allow him to sit back and do nothing. In fact, the opposite is true. His hope stirred him to action. David trusted that God was going to do something miraculous, but he knew he was in partnership with God and that he needed to be obediently active. That’s why we often see David asking for God’s direction and then
boldly taking steps of faith (see 1 Chronicles 14:10, 1 Chronicles 14:14, 1 Samuel 23:2, 2 Samuel 2:1).

Can you imagine if David had been passive, lacking enthusiasm, and undisciplined when he faced Goliath? Imagine David saying to himself
Well, I sure hope God does something. I’m just going to sit here in the trenches with the rest of the guys. Let’s hope God sends lightning to strike this giant
. If that had been his attitude, God would have used someone else to defeat Goliath. God was looking for someone who would be willing to do his part—someone whose hope would stir him to action. David was that person!

When David showed up on the front lines to bring supplies to his brothers, and he heard the Philistine giant cursing God and taunting the armies of Israel, instantly, he got his hopes up. He said to the men around him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?” (1 Samuel 17:26). He wasn’t thinking about defeat; he wasn’t thinking about failure; he wasn’t thinking about the odds stacked against him—he was hopeful that he could succeed and the battle could be won.

That hope moved David to action. Between the time he first felt hope and the time the victory was actually won, look at the action steps he took: David resisted the criticism from his brother who tried to belittle and discourage him (vv. 28–30); he persuaded King Saul to let him fight (vv. 32–37); he tried on Saul’s armor but decided not to use it (vv. 38–39); he chose five stones as ammunition for his slingshot (v. 40); he defied Goliath, predicting victory (vv. 45–47); and he ran to the battle (v. 48). David didn’t have an attitude that said
Well, I sure hope things work out. Let’s just wait and see
. He had an attitude that said
My hope is in God. Let’s go win this battle!
David didn’t run away from the battle or hide from it like the soldiers were doing; he ran toward it full of hope and faith that through God he could win against the giant. David had a positive expectation that something good was going to happen!

You can have the same kind of attitude David had. You can use the hope that is building in your heart as you read this book to cause you to seek God’s direction, step out in faith, and boldly do what God has put in your heart to do. God wants to do wonderful things in your life, but He won’t do them if you are hopeless and negative—God wants you to take part in the miracle by being energetic and full of positive expectation. You might think
I wish I felt hopeful, Joyce, but I just don’t
. Hope isn’t something we wait to feel, it is something we decide to have.

Be hopeful on purpose! Hope is a powerful, supernatural opportunity that you don’t want to miss! A great deal of our energy is connected to our thinking, so if we think hopeful thoughts, our energy will increase, just as it would decrease if we thought hopeless things.

Some people
hope
God will do something to change their situation, yet they never take any action themselves. For example, people won’t find a job if they don’t go look for one. There are also people who take action, but they are hopeless and negative about the outcome. Neither of these types of people will obtain what they want, but there are those rare individuals who have a God-inspired dream; they pray and take action as God leads, and they remain hopeful no matter how long it takes for them to see their dreams fulfilled.

All through the Bible, we see God’s people seizing supernatural opportunities and participating in their miracles. When God promised to bring down the walls of Jericho, the Israelites marched around the city, shouted in triumph, and fought the battle… action steps! As Jesus prepared to feed the 5,000, the disciples organized the crowd and passed out the food… action steps! Before Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, she pressed through the
crowd and touched the hem of His garment… action steps! When the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost, Peter stood before the people and preached the Gospel… action steps! If the men and women of the Bible can seize their opportunities and take decisive action steps, you and I can do the same thing.

In your life, it may look like this…

First be clear about what it is that you want or need. Pray about it in faith, and be full of hope as you wait on God. Be sure to walk in prompt obedience to any direction the Holy Spirit gives you. Some people pray and then doubt that what they ask for will ever happen. Those prayers are not answered. God said to “pray and do not doubt” (see James 1:6). The way to keep doubt from getting into your heart and mind is to stay filled with hope and positive expectation. Hope should not be a one-time thing, or a “here and there” thing. Hope should be a constant in our lives!

Prayerfully consider what steps God would have you take in order to see your dreams fulfilled. If it is something that is from the Lord, He will guide you and bless your hard work. God put a dream in my heart about teaching His Word and helping other people, and I can honestly say that I have not been inactive since that time. I have had many discouraging days and difficult times, but over the years I have learned to remain filled with hope. It has always made my life better and made me a better person. As you take action toward the fulfillment of your dreams and goals, you can pray the same thing Moses prayed:
And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands—yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it
(Psalm 90:17). Moses didn’t ask God to bless his inactive passivity; he asked that his work would be blessed.