Women of Biblical Hope

I was in 7th when I gave my heart away to the guy of my dreams. With that surrender I spent a year and a half I spent time putting my confidence, security, and desire to rescued in this guy. Then one day he literally faded in the distance.

Then about a year ago I stepped out and met a guy. He pursued me like I have never been and he appeared to have a heart for God and youth. I have experienced many friends finding Godly men in the most unexpected random places that I thought, “This is it, this is my time, this is my story.” As we kept moving forward I felt this guy was the one to love me, was the one who would give me security and rescue me the way I have always dreamed. Then one day he faded and God had other plans for us both. My hopes, my plans had failed me once again.

Since that time it’s been quite a journey in finding what it means to have biblical hope in the Lord and to trust my Father. Through my time with Him and also through the voice of those who have gone before this is what He has shown me.

In Psalm 33 the author praises God for all that he does, but then he makes a shift in verses 16-17 expressing to the audience various things kings put their hope in but how those things fail. “A king is not saved by his great army, a warrior is not delivered by his great strength, and the war horse is a vain hope for victory.” These things have the potential to allow someone to put their hope in the world around them instead of seeking the safest place to put their hope IN.
What is your hope IN? Where do you believe are the places in your life you will find joy, peace, confidence, contentment?

Verse 18 says, “Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.” OK, but what is this hope that is spoken about in the bible because the only definition I know of hope is one that is based on uncertainty, wishful thinking, and fingers crossed.
This hope lacks the confidence I read about in the bible in which God tells us time and time again we have the ability to have in our lives. We have to alter our definition to biblical hope if we as women are to known the full power of being women of hope.

We first have to acknowledge and confess our false hopes. Biblical hope is “rooted in placing our confidence in our faith, having an expectation in something, something is going to give us life, something is going to give us joy, something is going to protect us, something is going to be our provision, something is going to surround us and keep us.”-Marian Johnson

I look back and realize I subconsciously thought this guy was going to make me happy, give me life, give me my dreams, give me joy, give me security, my hope was in these things. I placed my security in this person and my future plans with him became my hope.

What is your hope built on? Relationships, a job, your level of education, pride, family?

As women we like to have security, have control so it’s a challenge to follow God because that would make life unpredictable and uncertain and those are scary places.
Ok, now I know you are sitting there going, “great Kara, I know I hold tight to things so how do I gain that biblical hope and hope in God?
It starts with focusing our minds on truth. Lamentations 3:19-24 shows us why we can hope in God. I heard this saying and I feel like you could replace the words with whatever you tend to put your hope in. “Marriage doesn’t make you happy, it just makes you married.” –Marian Johnson. How true! Just because you get something you hoped for doesn’t mean it’s going to ever satisfy you the way you think. So ladies, let us shift our focus and speak truth, scream it from the top of your lungs in your car, whatever you need.

“God IS good, He’s got a GOOD plan for you, and even you can’t see this know you can trust him. CHOOSE to hope IN God, CHOOSE to believe. Whatever uncertainty, whatever dark times are going on in your life we can stand firm knowing we have security in him, God is real, he is a God who sees, a God who loves us, loves me, a God who is active and working in our lives.

Next, surrender. Genesis 22 is a classic story of surrender with Abraham and Isaac. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the long awaited blessing to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham. “Did his hope for the future promises of God shift from what God said to the blessing that was in his hand at the moment?”-Marian Johnson.
Deep down I knew God had my future in his hands and knew of his promises to me, but the longer I dated that guy the more I found myself transferring my faith in those things to the blessing I had found of someone who wanted to spend time with me and found me attractive. My heavenly Father showed me that I was holding tightly to what I thought God should be giving me. God asked me and is asking you gently, “release your plan to me, give me your false hopes, even the things you hold closest to you.”
However, still at the end of the day we get to choose, to say “yes” or “no” to Him. Do you have to courage to say, “I’ll let you have your will with me.”

For a long time I kept asking, “But God can I hope IN you, can I trust you, will you like all the others fade in time?” But here’s the deal with that. We can hope in God because He is GOOD, he is faithful, he is trustworthy, is his ruler of everything he is sovereign. Our thoughts should shift from “God can you?” to “I BELIEVE you, I BELIEVE what you want from me is GOOD.”

My prayer for us to become women who are filled with hope is that we can all come to a place where we are able to think and feel whole heartily, “when God shuts a door I know it means something better is coming, he’s got a different plan and I trust him and my hope is built ON him.”-Marian Johnson