HOPE...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

—Romans 15:13

Hope is the most important thing we can possess.  I have learned from experience that I can have all the money I could want, private planes as my mode of travel, red carpets that line the doorway entrance, and friends with names that make others giggly and excited, but without hope these things would be empty.  Amidst my Hollywood existence, one most people kill to have, I lost my very idea of what my hope was in. It's why I walked away to focus my attention on my sons hopes and dreams. His seemed more worthy.  His are more worthy. 

My son is a leader not a follower. He always has been. He is called to leadership from birth. He quietly takes people in as he prays for them, and his assessments are so correct he usually dares not speak, especially to adults, who can't often handle truth that comes from the very throne room of grace through him.  He has a gift. One that God knew would be so powerful, and so powerfully used, that he sent me a husband fashioned completely to nurture and teach my son about this gift and how to use it to impart hope.  

I am in development now on a new tv show.  It's the only show I am excited to see on television today.  It's a passion project that I will co-executive produce with an amazing filmmaker and documentary maker. The one factor I'm sure of is that it must include my son and the use of his gift on a global level.  It will inspire hope, as he does daily all over his university campus, for a world that exists to rob people of this very thing they need so greatly! 

We need hope that God is real.  We need hope that He sees us, that He cares, that He has a plan for our life and that plan is infinitely better than the one we may be in the middle of making even now.

We need hope that our prayers have been heard and will be answered. 

Isn't that all anyone wants.  It's all I really want. And, like any parent, when it comes to my son I hope that The Lords promises over his life will come to pass and soon. Soon, I add, because in the natural, through my own eyes, time appears to be running short for some of those promises in particular.  However, Hope cannot look through fleshly eyes. "For we walk by faith not by sight." (Hebrews11)

Interior battles are most intense when the hope we cling to is tested by the reality we see.  Then again, I've learned to never be fooled by my lying eyes for God is a God with a reality all His own.  

Living with hope is a state of mind found deep inside your faith. Remember the man who said to Jesus "Lord I believe only help my unbelief?"  Doesn't this man capture our heart and the struggles
we have to hold onto our hope, in faith?

Lord, I believe, I want to believe, but there's a grain of doubt and fear deep inside the pit of my stomach and it needs your help.  It needs your help to walk strongly, to live in love with your children who speak negativity and faithlessness all around me, and to overcome what my eyes see and look only to what you've promised you'd do exactly where I am.  Jesus I believe only help my unbelief. 

What was this man asking Jesus?  What are we asking Him for?  We are asking Him to restore our hope in Him and all that He has said to us directly, in His word, or through His prophecies.  We are asking for our hope that He is real, and that He really will turn our situations around, to be restored
and strengthened. We are asking for faith. 

Jesus knows when we believe and only He can help our unbelief. 

Unbelief battles daily against hope.  Unbelief breeds fear and doubt at an alarming rate. Unbelief
breeds acceptance of mediocrity, and hopelessness in the greatness of the visions God places inside us.  

My reflection for today is only to get you, and myself, to a place of restored hope for all that you hope for in life.  Mediocrity is an unacceptable compromise.  Jesus is not mediocre and His children are not meant to be either. We are called to greatness as our Father is great. Your hope is found in the depth of your faith and belief in Jesus Christ. That is the same place your dreams are found.  That's the same place your power, your joy, and your victory is found.  

How do you live for Him? 

How does your life reflect Him? 

How intimate and real and alive is your relationship with Him?  

Only you know the degree of the answer to each of these questions.  To that measure is the strength of your faith and hope. To that measure you will live a life with a cup overflowing with answered prayer and the presence of power and joy in the midst of all that you see. Or you will be bitter, feeling as if He never answers your prayers, blaming Him for the lack in your life because you never become intimate with Him and His abundance.

How your life reflects Him is your choice.

I am learning that The Lord will allow you to live with hope but if you don't live for Him in what you hope for, your hope will be deferred while He works on your character.  There are plenty of Gods children with great hope and... zero character.  The world doesn't need any more men and women who lack character!

My son plays basketball at the University of Kansas and I tell him, and his teammates, ALL the time, that the NBA doesn't need anymore young men who lack character.  The NBA needs young men of character whose hope is grounded in Christ's power at work in them to change the ugliness of the game that was inspired by God through James Naismith, a man of God, for young men to grow and develop character!!!  Powerful stuff exists in the original intention for this game! 

Yes, our God is mighty to save. But, are you mighty to hope in Him to do so?  

Or is your hope in your fleshly manipulation of people and things, hurting others with the carelessness by which you use them to get your way?!  Do you actually breed false hope in others by telling them anything you think they want to hear to sway their path? And, in the end, hurt them because of your lies? 

I pray daily, Lord, let my hope and faith in you be so strong as to always tell the truth even if it means losing something I want.  Lord, help me support and advance those whose hope is truly deeply in you, for this is supporting the kingdom of God.  Lord, let me live and walk in the hope of your power at work in me daily.  Lord let my needs be satisfied completely in you. 

And, Lord I submit my emotions daily to your love and to the knowledge of what is right, in spite of the evil I see.  Lord give me hope in you, faith in you, and obedience to you. 

Lord be my Lord!  It's that simple.