Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Today we use “hope” as a word that is interchangeable with “wish.” I say it all the time. Like, “Do you think that your team will win?” “I hope so.” Or “Do you think you got into your program?” “I sure hope I did.”
Even if that’s not exactly how you talk, you know what I mean. The only problem with this is that then when I hear about putting my hope in the Lord it doesn’t sound very appealing because “hoping” for something is basically as good as guessing.
When I was in college, I realized that I had been living out my faith that way. I had been “hoping” that God would provide for me, while I wasn’t willing to bank my whole life on it. I wished it would be true, but I didn’t trust that it really was.
One comment from a friend really changed my perspective. He said that his faith really turned around when he stopped trusting that the fears and worries that he had were more real than the promises that God gives in the Bible. He said that he stopped trusting his own worry about life, but instead trusted that when God says that he is loved and taken care of, that it might really be true.
This may seem overly simple, but at that moment it spoke to my soul. I realized that I was not fully trusting God with almost any of my life. I needed to let go and let God lead me. I realized that the Hope I have in God is way more assured than a wish. It’s a promise from a God that has never broken a promise. It’s more real than anything else I can ever experience.
Today, write down 3 things with which you don’t want to fully trust God. Things like school, jobs, relationships, college, future, etc. Pray and ask God why it is so hard for you to let go and then let go. It’s way easier said than done, but it’s the thing that helped my understanding of God go from a hopeful wish to a hope rooted in real trust.