Resolutions are made; Lose weight! Eat healthier! Spend more time with my kids! Paint more! Do things that inspire me! Etc. Etc. Etc. A month later. Life moves forward,
old habits kick in, time goes fast, and those new years resolutions made with good intentions and high hopes
, are slowly being placed on the back burner with last years resolutions, and the year before that and the year before that. Sound familiar?Why are these resolutions so hard to follow? We had such high hopes for these plans to work out. Why is it so hard to stick with it?
Hope: Webster's Dictionary tells me that it means "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen". FEELING. DESIRE. This might be our problem. We are relying on ourselves to have these feelings and desires for things to happen. Maybe, we are putting our hope in the wrong things.
Is it wrong to want to lose weight? Absolutely not! Is it bad to want to make a plan to eat healthier or spend more time with our kids? No way! Are these really hopes though?
Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". God is our hope. He has laid out plans for us. He has a path for us. He has no desire to harm us....sin does this. God is our hope and our future.
Too many times I think we pray and tell God what we want Him to do for us, when it should be us praying and asking what He expects us to do for him. We think we know best. When God tells us to go through one door and we want to go through another, many of us are guilty of praying and telling God we think He got it wrong. Our Earthly minds can never comprehend what He knows. He created us and we need to keep our eyes above and not on things of our own desires.
"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:31
God renews us, He gives us strength, He makes us not grow weary in this weary world. He is our hope. Stretch for success. Hope for the best. The best is our Lord!! If we hope for the best, which is our Lord, he will renew us!
"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
Our hope in the Lord will give us pure joy and peace. Yes, losing weight and all those resolutions will make us feel better, temporarily, and only if we follow through. However, our hope in the Lord brings joy and eternal life. Our hope is found in Jesus hanging on that cross. His blood was shed for us, our sins were forgiven through him. The hope in him is the promise from God. A promise for eternal life, unattainable without the hope in Jesus. His resurrection is our gift. Our hope. Our future.
"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:24-25"Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:1-3
Our hope in earthly things will leave us feeling defeated, empty and longing. Our hope in the Lord our God will renew us, fulfill us, and give us glory! Things we wish for our earthly lives are just that. A wish. A desire. Want to lose weight? (I do!), I don't hope for it though. I have my hope in the Lord. I will work on losing weight. I WISH I could lose weight and I will try to lose weight, but the word Hope is reserved for higher things.
Our hope is not in the new year, but in the ONE that makes all things new.
Happy New Year!
May you be brought closer to God this year and keep your eyes to the hope from above.
