Hope

Hope is a powerful thing.  It is one thing that I cannot live without.  I notice the shift in my demeanor when I feel my hope slipping.  I notice the harsh words,  the impatience,  the depression that tries to take over my heart.  I have quoted it before, and I will do so again, that man can endure almost anything as long as he has hope.  It is that hope that we must so diligently protect from the enemy.  

I can feel that hope is the first thing that the enemy attacks.  Lying to me about a future that I cannot see, therefore, draining me of the supernatural energy and drive that I have because of the hope that Christ has placed within me.  The Holy Spirit was given to me as a deposit.  A deposit of promise, a deposit of hope.  Sadly this deposit is one of the first things that I forget when I lose focus.  It is because I begin to either focus on the past or the future. When I can’t see the outcome I begin to lose hope that all things will be resolved in God’s timing, and for His glory, which will be for my good. 

Holding onto hope is what keeps me looking up, it is what keeps the joy growing in my heart, it is what enables me to smile and know that no matter what happens tomorrow that I am blessed.  That I can trust and therefore have hope in what God has planned for me.  In order to hold tightly to this hope, however, I have to claim God’s spirit within me, and not quench the truth that He speaks to me.  I have to choose truth over lies.  Joy over sadness, and hope over despair.  The life that God has planned for me,  is always available to me, I simply have to reach out and take a hold of that which God has taken a hold of me for.  I have to choose to hope and to accept life more abundantly.  

Trust/faith and hope go hand in hand.  You really cannot have one without the other.  So it shouldn’t be surprising that these two are included on the list of the Holy Spirit’s fruit.  I cannot produce hope on my own.  How silly of me to think that I could produce fruit apart from the Spirit.  I can do nothing with out Christ, even hope.