Keep Hope ALIVE

Have you ever felt like your hope was on life support?  I have!  I've heard the phrase "keep hope alive" before, but when I read it today, it jumped off the page at me.  Personally, I feel like I have "kept hope alive" in different circumstances in my life for so long that that my hope is now a senior citizen!  But I did it...only with God's help, I have managed to keep it alive, and now it is stronger than ever.  

Sometimes we let our hope wither away because we don't feed it with the Word.  When I say "hope" I'm not talking about wishing or some far-off dream.  I'm talking about the God kind of hope...the kind of hope that gets you through the night because you KNOW that God is faithful...the kind of hope that no matter how dim the light is at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel, it tells you that you will reach it one day.  I believe that God uses hope to keep us going when we otherwise would have given up.

While this kind of hope is from God, it is our job to keep it alive.  I know my hope has been on life support many times, but it has always recovered.  Why?  Because I nurse it back to health by meditating and speaking the Word of God.  Every word that comes out of our mouths either carries life or death in it.  When we choose to only speak life over our circumstances, we are keeping hope alive.  That is part of our job description as Christians.

I pray that you will build your hope up today by opening your mouth.  I used to only know the first part of Proverbs 13:12 which is "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" and that is true.  But there's a second part to that verse which is "but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life."  Keep your hope alive, and your God-given desire WILL come!