Humility | BELIEVE | Dave Ramsey
What steals hope?
1. Failure as an indicator of the future
2. Hope in the wrong things
3. Lost perspective
When you’ve been through life, when someone has stolen your hope, when you’ve surrendered your hope to a situation, when you move from hopeful to hopeless, we’re in need of some spiritual boy scout fluid, aren’t we? When I feel like wet wood, I need “whoosh” in my life. I need some hope- something to light me up, something to move me along.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when desire comes it is the tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12
When we do something stupid or fail, and we say, “That’s it, we failed. That’s all there is. I am now- I didn’t just fail- I am a failure.” When I take my failure, my foible, my problem, my mess-up, and I use that as an indicator of my future and go, “That’s all there is. I’m just going to be that guy.”
“I’m just going to be that girl.”
“I got laid off from my job so I’ll never have a good career.”
“That marriage went bad so I’ll never have a good marriage.”
All of that. And so we say that bad thing that happened or the bad thing that I brought onto myself- I use that and I project it and I say, “That’s my future.”
Why would you go forward? You’d be a psychopath if you thought that was a good thing to walk into. And it’s a false projection- it’s not true.
“Failure is the opportunity to begin more intelligently.” Henry Ford
“Winners never quit”- yes they do. They regularly quite doing stupid stuff that didn’t work.
If you place your hope in the wrong things, people can’t hold your hope- they’re not capable of it. Place your hope in that career and then they fire you, place your hope in that marriage and then it ends- you place your hope in the wrong things. In Christianity we call this “idol worship”.
God has a plan for you and it has nothing to do with stuff.
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for your harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
“Men and women are limited not by their intelligence, nor by their education, not by the color of their skin, but the size of their hope.” John Johnson
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:3-4
I have an internal perspective that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes. I might not see it this side of death’s door, but I’ll see it over there. 100% of our investments are where moth and rust cannot destroy. All of these things that I have learned are getting me ready for that walk on those golden streets. Getting you ready, because your Heavenly Father- He’s crazy about you. He’s got a plan for you.
I want to tell you- you got this, you can do this. Whatever your momentary trial is- it’s momentary- your Dad is walking with you, and He’s not the kind of dad that’s going to let you down. He’s worthy of the trust. Trustworthy.