I think it’s nonsense when people say, “Don’t get your hopes up”. We’ve created a culture where people are afraid to really dream and really hope just to protect themselves from possibly being let down or getting hurt.
Doing this gives us a small view of our lives, our potential and most importantly God. It’s actually pretty ironic because people don’t want to get their hopes up because they are afraid of nothing happening, but with this kind of thinking there’s not much room for anything to happen.
We have no reason to not get our hopes up because in Romans 5 verse 5 it says “hope does not disappoint”. Hope won’t let you down!
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:5
Having hope is having high expectations of God, which makes sense because He is God and can do whatever He wants. If you hope, you know that something is going to happen because “with God, nothing is impossible”.
He is always doing something. Nothing is something God can’t do. It’s impossible.
“For with God nothing is impossible.” Luke 1:37
God created this world out of nothing. He took dust, added nothing and created a man. When some of the disciples were fishing all night, what did they catch? Nothing. When God added Jesus to the picture, they caught so many fish their nets broke.
We serve a God who wants to do something with our nothing. Why ask for small stuff when the God we serve, created the universe and is capable of anything?!
Next time you pray, remember who you are praying to. When you put into perspective who Jesus is and what He can do, your problems seem really wimpy compared to the power He possesses in His right pinky.
I think God wants you to have more hope in Him. He wants to give you so many fish your net will break. He wants you to raise your eyes and raise your expectations. He wants you to GET YOUR HOPES UP.
But realize that you are going to fail. This seems so counterintuitive, but don’t be afraid of failing; rather TRUST GOD in that failure and acknowledge that where you are, is where you might be for a moment, but it’s not where God wants to keep you for forever.
He allows you to fail so you can learn, grow and depend on Him. This way of living is way more effective than just using “don’t get your hopes up” as a safety blanket to make the fall of failure less painful. We can’t just smooth it over by lowering our expectations and standards. We should raise the bar and get excited about our dreams.
Hope is what gives us passion, purpose and motivation. It gives us vision and a reason to work hard and not give up. When we “don’t get our hopes up”, we lose a huge driving power to accomplish our dreams because we’ve already prepared ourselves for failure and we expect not to succeed.
Expand your view of who God is and stop making Him so small. Why do you limit the Creator of the universe who can do immeasurably more than you ask or think?
Dreams are free. Let’s get more of them! Take a chance. Hope in God.
Joyfully,
Nicole #dostuff #dreambig #ALifeWithoutLimits #Goals #GoalSetting #RoadtoMissCA
I believed like this one time before. I did get my hopes up and I’ve been broken, used and completely apathetic. Indifferent now. No, our hopes and desires do not come true. I don’t know exactly what to hope in except Gods plan, which is very vague at best. It’s not worth it to think you’ll get something, you’ll hold offense at God. Better to expect nothing at all and just be thankful for what you have. There is no such thing as the easy way with God. Only with the devil. I have no doubt God blesses others and I have seen him bless people. But idk what it is with some people like myself. I feel like I have been crushed. I do trust, I do pray and I’ll do my best to love. But God needs to meet me half way, I cannot do this on my own.
Jonathan, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been hurt. God sees that and knows that. I believe He wants to speak healing into that area of your life and give you freedom from the things holding you back from breakthrough. Jesus Himself is hope and the only hope that will last beyond this Earth. You’re right; there’s nothing to hope in on Earth because ultimately it will fail and let us down. The only thing worthy of hoping in is Christ because He came and saved us. and you’re also right that you can’t do this on your own. I want to encourage you that God doesn’t meet you half way. He comes directly to you. He doesn’t make you find your way to Him, He knows exactly where you are and will go out of His way to find, you scoop you up, love you and give you purpose in life. He loves you and hears you. I’m praying for you and for a community for you that will lift you up and encourage you!