Red, Black, and... a Smile! Pt. 3

The Sunny Smile of Hope

 

            “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Ps 42:5&6)  Hope.  “Put your hope in God.”  Sometimes I wonder though if we really understand the true meaning of hope.  What is hope?  Is it a feeling, an emotion?  Is it a resolution?  Is it a state of mind?

            Only weeks ago, I wouldn’t have confidently been able to answer that question.  I didn’t truly understand what hope really was, but last week, the Lord began taking me on a journey of discovering hope like I’ve never known it before.  Many of you will remember that at the close of last year, 2012, the Lord was teaching me about His unconditional love.  Well, now the lesson for this new season of my life is hope.

                I asked you what hope is and listed some suggestions:  Is it a feeling?  It is a resolution?  Is it a state of mind?  I believe it’s all three of those.  Like many probably, I used to think it was only a feeling though, but I’ve come to learn it’s much more.  It must be more because “if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1Co 15:19)

Hope goes deeper than our emotions.  Feelings can be so fickle.  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” (Jer 17:9)  Your emotions can so easily be swayed, and your heart will lie to you sometimes.  Trust me, I just recently experienced first-hand the false front of my own emotions.  (See Red, Black, and… a Smile! High Heels and Humility)  With our own feelings and hearts being so untrustworthy then, hope needs to be rooted in firmer soil if it’s to ever survive the testing of life.

            The world in which we live is not favorable to hope.  In fact, the Enemy in the world will do everything within his power to kill and destroy hope in you.  He wants to rob you of the joy found in hope.  And that’s why hope cannot be only an emotion.

            Some days, you won’t always feel very hopeful.  When your situation looks glum and impossible, you probably won’t feel hope.  But can you still have hope even when you don’t feel it?  I believe you can.  Because our hearts can be so fickle, we have to follow not our hearts, but the guidance of God, which means that our emotions and what we know to be true won’t always coincide.  Sometimes they’ll be at odds with each other, in fact.  We have to learn to control our hearts, or should I say, to allow the Lord to control them.  Hope is a resolution we must make to embrace in our lives, and it’s a state of mind and spirit that we must adopt even when our hearts feel hopeless.  We must learn to not always believe what our hearts tell us, but rather to tell our hearts what we believe.  You have to first know and understand the hope you have in Christ no matter what and then you must adhere to a resolution to believe in that hope when your heart tells you there is no hope left.

            It’s confusing, I know.  Heart, mind, spirit… it’s a lot to keep track of, yes.  But trust me, the joy and peace found in hope is so worth the effort of grasping the entirety of hope itself.

            In the prior two posts, I share with you all two of the struggles I most recently experienced.  (See Red, Black, and… a Smile! High Heels and Humility and Red, Black, and… a Smile! Pt. 2 Red Coat Recovery)  For several months, I had gone through a season of waging war with God for control of my emotions.  I was trying to hold onto something while He was trying to turn my heart in another direction and take me to a new level of experience, into a new season.  During this time, I lost all my hope.  I lost faith and hope in all my dreams.  I lost my enthusiasm in all my ambitions.  I felt… hopeless.  And at the time, that was all I knew hope to be, an emotion.  Something I felt.  Therefore, I lost hope because I never really understood it.  I gave it up.

            In reality though, I never truly had genuine hope.  I had the sunny-feeling aspect of it, but that was all.  When I surrendered the control of my emotions over to the Lord that morning though and He opened my eyes to the truth, He also began returning to me not only the shallow hope I had known before, but He began teaching me what true hope really is.  He has restored my faith in my dreams and ambitions, and He has given me yet another new beginning.  He has removed the callouses of my heart and has taught me to learn to love again.  He has given me… hope.

            When I surrendered to His will, such a joy and a peace swept over me like nothing I had ever experienced.  I felt it like a tidal wave, just soaking me.  Like a light that set forth from my heart and spread throughout all my body.  It was an immediate reaction that took place the minute I gave in.  My heart felt so light.  Such a burden had been lifted from it, something I had been trying to overcome on my own for months by sheer willpower.  But it wasn’t until my will was defeated and His will overcame that I could receive the freedom I yearned for.

            In the moment when He restored my hope and gave me a hope I had never known, a smile spread across my face so broad and I laughed!  I felt happier than I had felt in a very long time.  But that’s what hope feels like, isn’t it?  Joy unimaginable.  He filled my cup with joy overflowing.  “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Ro 12:12)

            Another benefit of hope is peace.  I had felt restless and discontent in the deep chasms of my heart because all the while, my heart had been a battleground for control of my emotions.  I felt miserable deep within.  “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Pr 13:12)  My spirit wasn’t in alignment with God’s will for my life and I experienced no peace.  My mind was always troubled no matter how far back I pushed the cares and no matter how expertise I had become in ignoring them.  Joy, peace, and hope all came together to me.  “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Php 4:7)  And it was truly beyond all comprehension.  It was a divine peace that could come only from the Prince of Peace Himself.  He has restored my soul.  “A heart at peace gives life to the body…” (Pr 14:30)  “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” (Ps 62:5)  And now that He has renewed my hope, He has begun teaching me how to root it into my knowledge so that I may never again forget the promise of hope I have in Him.

                So I ask you now, What is your conception of hope?  And where in your life have you perhaps exchanged it for the pessimism of the world?  Learn to laugh and smile again as I learned to.  But smiling is a very conscious and deliberate action and it isn’t always easy.  To smile, you must use muscles in your face; it’s easier not to smile, it takes less effort.  Allow the Lord to teach you how to embrace a genuine hope that will set a smile on your face despite your situation and the uncertainty of what the future holds.  “… she can laugh at the days to come.” (Pr 31:25)  Like the saying goes, a smile is a curve that can set everything straight.  “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.” (Pr 15:30)  “A cheerful heart is good medicine…” (Pr 17:22)

            The Lord has given me new hope and restored my faith in the plans He has for me.  He has given me a new song to sing.  “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph 5:19&20)  Let Him do the same for you, friends.  And so I close with a smile and a sincere prayer for each and every one of you: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.  The Lord be with all of you.” (2Th 3:16)

 

 

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 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 40:29-31

 

 

*I thought I’d share with you all a few of my favorite songs about hope and optimism.  My Hope Is In You by Aaron Shust is a top favorite in my music collection; Love Won’t Quit On Us by MIKESCHAIR speaks specifically to the fear and disappointments we sometimes face in love; In You by Jonny Diaz reminds us of the hope we have of still being able to bring glory to Christ despite our short-comings and imperfections; and Red Umbrella by Faith Hill speaks of looking on the bright side despite the rainclouds in our lives.  You can find beginner guitar chords for In You by Jonny Diaz on my The Avid Author blog, post Jonny Diaz Song Chords (www.theavidauthor.blogspot.com).

 

 

 

 

 ~We’ve all heard of the phrase “pulling on her/ his heartstrings,” but heart-chords?  I was struggling to decide what to name my blog.  I wanted it to be a name that was both creative and meaningful.  As I pondered, my gaze fell upon my acoustic guitar where it stands in my bedroom, and the Lord reminded me that our hearts- our lives- are instruments.  They are constantly in song, but what melody our heart plays is each of our own decisions.  They can play a melody for praise or for entertainment.  A musician selects his songs according to his audience.  So do we.  Whether our audience is the world or the Lord, our song will be different.  This blog is designed to first, increase my awareness in finding God and His guidance in my every day and second, to share the music lessons He teaches me in tuning my heart to learn the chords of praise He longs to play on my heart-instrument.  Music is a powerful tool.  Use it for His glory.  “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3