Get Your Hopes Up!: Expect Something Good to Happen to You Every Day (7 page)

When you became a believer, you came into a new family—the family of God. Now you have brothers and sisters in Christ who understand what you’re going through and who can encourage you along the way, and you have a heavenly Father who will never leave you. One of the many blessings you receive from your heavenly Father is an inheritance. Ephesians 1:18 says:

Through Christ, an inheritance is provided for each of us. That means we’re not hired servants working to earn something from God, but we are His children and we are inheritors. As joint heirs with Christ, we get what He earned and sacrificed for us. The Bible says
that everything that is His is now ours (see John 16:15). And when you realize you have an inheritance from God, it changes the way you view things. Your problems don’t seem as big, your frustrations don’t seem as significant, the future doesn’t seem so frightening—you can be joyful and full of hope, because God has already provided everything you need!

We serve a good God, and He wants to flood your life with good things. If you go through each day worrying about how a bill is going to be paid, afraid you’re not going to get the promotion at work, bitter about what someone said behind your back, you’re not living like a child who understands you have an inheritance. Worry, fear, and bitterness are character traits of the old you. The new you can trust, be confident, and forgive, because you believe God can take anything that happens to you and work it out for your good—He has good things stored up for you. If someone else gets that promotion, God obviously has something better for you. Don’t worry or get depressed. Embrace the new you—realize you have a great inheritance in God—and get your hopes up about what God is going to teach you and how He is going to provide for you through this situation. If someone says something bad about you, instead of getting bitter, ask God how to handle the situation. In the past, you might have lost your cool and told that person off, but that was the old you. God has brought you a long way since then. You have an inheritance in Him, and He can turn that situation into something good.

We began this book by talking about expectations. And as we end this chapter and this first section, I want to encourage you to actually begin raising those expectations. Have a hope to go higher!
The more hope you have, the easier it will be to walk by faith. I pray that God has been building your faith throughout these first five chapters—that’s why I think it’s time to expect even more from God. He loves you so much and wants to bless your life beyond measure (see Ephesians 3:20).

We say that a pregnant woman is “expecting.” That’s why she starts making plans. She is acting on her expectation—buying clothes, bottles, setting up the crib, and preparing the nursery. We need to act like people who are expecting. We should get up in the morning making plans for God to do something great. With God’s help, we can think
Today may be the day. This is the day the Lord has made, and something great is bound to happen to me
. Even if God doesn’t do exactly the thing you’re asking for, try to broaden your view. Maybe you’re asking for something and God’s got something better in mind. Don’t just ask for good; believe and hope for great.

Wake up each day saying “I have a happy and confident expectation that something amazing is going to happen today. My spouse is going to bless me. My kids are going to behave. I’m going to get great news at work. God is going to give me an opportunity to bless someone. A blessing is going to come in the mail. I’m going to experience a breakthrough today.” Don’t be afraid to trust, believe, and speak blessings over your day from the moment you wake up. I have decided to refer to this book as “The Happy Book.” I believe anyone who reads it will become happier than ever before. Hope is a joyful and confident expectation that something good is about to happen!

Hope removes the limits from our expectations. Are you expecting a little or a lot from the Lord? You may be halfway hoping God will do something. You may be halfway believing for something good, but I want to challenge you to completely and wholeheartedly believe for greater things than ever before. I want to challenge you
to believe that God can use you in greater ways. If you write songs, why can’t God give you the greatest song that’s ever been written? If you preach the Word, why can’t God give you a message so powerful, so awesome, that every time it’s preached, it sets captives free? If you’re raising children, why can’t your children grow up to be world changers? Why can’t you be promoted at your job? Why can’t you meet the person you are to marry and have an amazingly great life? Why can’t you overcome that hurt? Why can’t you make a difference in the lives of those around you? It’s time to start living with a new level of hopeful expectation. Believe that if anything good can happen to anyone, then it can happen to you!

When you look in the mirror today, I hope you’ll see yourself as God sees you. You aren’t a lost, broken, defeated, helpless person. You aren’t a person unable to control your mind or emotions, and you aren’t a person who can’t get past your past. You are so much more than those things! You are more than a conqueror (see Romans 8:37). You are a new creation in Christ, and God is working in your life. Little by little, one day at a time, God is changing you. You can live differently than you used to because you’re an overcomer. Believe these truths. Go ahead and get your hopes up!

We need hope all the time, but especially when we are hurting. Hope seems more elusive when we are in the midst of difficulty or personal pain of any kind. However, it is vital not to use “I’m going through tough times” as an excuse to be discouraged, depressed, and hopeless.

Although it is more difficult, it is also more important than ever to be hopeful during times of struggle. God wants to bring us through, not see us get stuck in the pain.

When loss comes, let’s deal with the loss and, in the process, not lose ourselves. When tragedy comes, let’s grieve properly and not give way to the spirit of grief that will turn our entire life into a tragedy. When we are disappointed, let’s get reappointed. When we are depressed, let’s look up because we will all feel better if we hold our heads up high!

Everything about Jesus is up! He came from Heaven, He returned to Heaven when His work here was done, and we are promised that
He will come again in the clouds and every eye will see Him. He lifts our heads, our spirits, and our lives. On the other hand, we do have an enemy called Lucifer, Satan, the great deceiver, or the devil, and everything he offers is something down. He offers depression, discouragement, dejection, disease, despair, despondency, divorce, death, et cetera.

I am declaring war on hopelessness, and I am asking you to join me in the fight against it. Each one of us who makes a commitment to spreading hope everywhere we go will become part of the answer the world needs.

One of the things I like to do when I have rest time is watch movies. Dave and I spend so much time traveling that when I get home, I look forward to sitting back in my recliner with my dog in my lap and enjoying a couple of hours relaxing in front of an entertaining movie. You’re probably the same way—there’s just something enjoyable about a watching a really good movie.

No matter what kind of movies you like to watch (I like the classics or a good mystery), we’ve all witnessed the same scene. It’s a Hollywood favorite that finds its way into action movies, adventure movies, crime thrillers, war movies, and even romantic comedies. I’m talking about the “fear of heights” scene. You’ve seen it, right? The settings are different but the dilemma is the same—HEIGHTS! The main character is standing on tiptoe out on a narrow ledge, or hesitantly crossing a rickety bridge, or nervously climbing a city
tower. Disaster seems unavoidable. In each of these scenes, our hero is ridiculously high up, the wind is blowing, his foot slips once or twice, the music swells… and I’m so nervous I can barely watch!

If you’ve seen this scene played out as many times as I have, you know there is a classic line that someone seems to always proclaim in this situation. Right as the character, or characters, are walking across the narrowest part of the ledge, traversing the shakiest section of the bridge, or climbing the most dangerous face of the mountain, someone says these words: “Whatever you do, don’t look down!” Seems like good advice, doesn’t it? Just stay focused, look at where you’re going, keep moving, and
don’t look down
. But for some reason, our favorite movie characters rarely listen. It’s pretty predictable. The first thing they do is look down, and the result is always the same: panic.

Maybe you can relate today. Of course, you’re not thousands of feet above the ground right now (at least I hope you’re not), but maybe you’re on a ledge of financial struggle and it feels as if you’re about to slip. Maybe you’re in a relationship that is swaying and shaking like a rickety bridge, and you feel it might collapse at any moment. Maybe you’re trying to climb over an obstacle so high that it has you nervous and afraid. If that’s the case—if you’re hurting today—I want to give you some familiar advice: Whatever you do, don’t look down.

I say “don’t look down” because a lot of people look to the wrong things when they find themselves in difficult situations. They focus on the size of the problem, the risks that they’re facing, the negative things others are saying, the pain of their past, their own unhealthy feelings and emotions, or their fear of failure. But there is no hope in any of those negative things. Those are all things that are “down,” and looking to them will not help you make the climb.

The Bible gives us a better option when we’re in need of help. Instead of looking down at the things that can’t help us, the Word
of God tells us to look up—to put our focus on the One who will always help us. Hebrews 12:2 says: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” (NKJV), and Isaiah 45:22 says, “Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” When he was in trouble, David would turn and look to the heavens, because he knew his help came from on high (see Psalm 121:1–2). I want to encourage you to do the same thing. When you’re going through something and you’re not sure what to do, where to go, or even where to look… just look up. Look for the Lord. He is the One who can help you. He is the One who will rescue you. He is the One who refuses to let you fall. Jesus said to look up, for our redemption draws near (see Luke 21:28). Our redemption is not in looking down. We look up to God expecting Him to redeem us.

The phrase “look up” means more than just gaze at the sky. It means to have a hopeful attitude, a positive outlook, and an expectation of something good. God is good, and He is always planning something good for us.

We often look to people or things during times of uncertainty, and that is understandable but usually ineffective. Even though we know we should trust God, and even though we believe He loves us and has a plan for our lives, there’s just a natural temptation to grab onto something tangible—something we can see with the natural eye. We can see God, but we must see Him with the eye of faith. We see Him with our hearts, and we should always put our hope in Him.

As I’ve traveled the world ministering to people, praying with them, and helping them through struggles, I’ve discovered there are many things people look to when they’re hurting before they think to look to God. Here are just a few of the most common examples: