Where does your hope lie?

This past weekend was a powerful weekend for Karrie and me. I thought I had my column all worked out with exactly what I wanted to share with you all. I was going to give you a glimpse into divine appointments, miracles, listening for the voice and where it can lead you. But things changed before I sat down to write, and my heart took me somewhere else. Or did it?

I want to write a column of hope to you this morning. I don’t know exactly who this is for or why exactly I was prompted to change my flow, but expressing hope is on my heart. I feel a desire to let you know that we all need to place our hope in the right spot. The right spot being in a glorious Savior.

Sometimes we place hope in money, a job, a person, a church, our family, a celebrity or the lottery, but that hope is misplaced. Those things can all be important, but those things will always fail us in a moment we need them most. A faith in the higher power, a risen king, a God that loves us all more than we will ever know is the only hope that will never fail us.

I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know there are those out there battling addictions, having problems in your marriage, looking for acceptance in the wrong places, facing health issues, feeling unworthy, running from your past, dealing with a life-altering episode, and searching for answers. I am writing this column to tell you the answer is in one place to all these issues and others I did not write down. We must place our hope in the hands of God.

There is a battle going on right now. I am not talking about a war that can be seen with the eyes. Although we do see the casualties of our enemy every day around us and on TV and on social media, the war is real. It is the most important battle we will ever be a part of, and whether you believe it or not, you are at war. You are in the mix of the conflict between good and evil. The war is raging and we cannot win it alone. We must have faith that our king has already defeated the demons in our path, and we must keep stepping forward into the destiny he has for us. Bad things will happen, but those things do not define us or shape us. We let the one who created us keep creating and turning those bad things into good things.

Our hope must lie with Jesus. If it does not, we are destroying ourselves. You have heard this line paraphrased from the Bible’s Matthew 17:20 a hundred times: Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. We must cling to that. Use it. Let our faith grow bigger and bigger and use it more and more. As we do, we will see the addictions fall away; we will see our marriages not only restored, but thrive. We will realize we have true acceptance and come to terms with our past, which was a stepping stone to our future. Healing has happened; we are worthy; we will not look back at the history books about us to shape our future, and what happened to me today is not the end of my story.

Hope is a word that can be thrown around in many places. But I truly hope that this column hits you in the heart and gives you a direction to turn your face to what always gives your footing a sound foundation on the rock. Place your hope in the highest court and do not let this world judge you any longer. Place your hope and faith with him and let him fill you up to overflowing. Place your hope in the place where love always is and never leaves you. Let him heal you.