Showing posts with label hopeful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hopeful. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

I Like Living With Hope

I like to believe there are extraordinary things, wonderful things, good things that could potentially occur.  I realize that it takes more than a positive attitude for remarkable things to be accomplished.  But I like living with a sense of hopefulness.  It just feels, to me, like a better way to live.

I know that when we hope for things we are then set up for disappointment.  And I have had many disappointments.  People who are hopeful sometimes have their hopes dashed.  But in spite of the disappointments I would still rather live with a sense of hope.

That’s why I love verses like Matthew 19:26, in which Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

That is a tremendously hopeful truth.  I pray that it gives hope to you, today!


Monday, August 5, 2013

Keep Dreaming Dreams

It’s encouraging and important to have a few things that you are dreaming about.  To have dreams is an aspect of hope.  I want to live with a sense of hope about the future, don’t you?  People who walk with God and genuinely understand who He is, should be among those who are most hopeful!  “…Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28.



Saturday, March 16, 2013

God's Forgiveness: A Helpful, Hopeful Truth


One of the nicest, most encouraging truths I’ve ever encountered is the truth of God’s forgiveness.  It’s impossible to get through this life without mistakes, blunders, errors, failures, sins, etc.  I have made a lot of them.  Some are painful to think about.  At this point in my life, the idea that God forgives me is a very helpful, hopeful, much-needed truth.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Action Is What Leads To A New Future


*POSTED:  In order to have a genuine sense of hope we have to believe that the future holds something good and positive. “It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.” Victor Frankl


The following question came in response to the post, above...

Question:  What happens when someone believes the future just holds more of the same?


Answer...
The idea that the future “just holds more of the same” would actually be a comfortable place for some people.  But it’s clear that that’s not the sense in which the questioner is expressing this thought.  The idea that the future just holds more of the same would, frankly, be anything but hopeful for a lot of us.

If we don’t want the future to hold more of the same, the bottom line is that we have to be willing to do different things.  I’m specifically referring to “actions.”  For the future to be different, we have to be willing to take new actions.  We have to try things we haven’t tried before.  All the clichés—like “be willing to move out of your comfort zone”—that we’ve heard before apply here.  (It’s helpful to remember that sometimes a “saying” becomes cliché because it’s true.)

So, we have to be willing to take some different actions that might feel risky to us.  (By the way, I’m not talking about doing things that are “risky” in the sense of being illegal or life threatening, but risky in the sense of being actions we haven’t taken before.)

In fact, it’s very likely that the future will, in fact, hold more of the same unless we take some new actions.

When it comes to making changes in our lives—changes that move us into a future that’s not just the same as the past—there are factors that can make a difference, factors like thinking, planning, learning new things, and making new commitments.  But at the end of the day action trumps everything else.  The actions we take will be the biggest factor in moving us toward a different future.