HOPE FOR YOUR THOUGHT LIFE!
Jeremiah in the midst of devastation, sorrow, pain, and floods of tears tells us how he went from despair, and hopelessness to having HOPE, CONFIDENT EXPECTATION OF ETERNAL REALITIES, and it began with his THINKING …RIGHT ABOUT the LORD. When difficulties, trials, and sorrows overflow and overcome the MIND, how can you go from hopelessness to Hope, which means “confident expectation?”
It has to do with HOW and WHAT you CHOOSE to THINK. In the midst of struggles, and pain, the MIND goes somewhere we CHOOSE to focus our THOUGHTS on something.
Let me ask you a question. Does the end of your THINKING leave you HOPELESS or with HOPE?
Jeremiah who had experienced despair gives us insight into how he went from despair to HOPE. Not the hope of “maybe,” or “if,” the hope of “chance,” the hope of uncertainty but the Hope of Certainty, “confident expectation” as the word means, and it begins with what he chooses to THINK on…”This I RECALL to MY MIND, Therefore I have HOPE.” What he chooses to RECALL to his mind leads him to HOPE! Instead of allowing the THOUGHTS that come to his mind which can be many and of all sorts, he made the choice ABOUT what he would THINK, cause his mind to dwell on, indeed WHO he would continually think on, and what he knew of Him! You too can do the same!
He made the choice about what he would THINK about! He would gather his thoughts and choose to recall to his mind! What did he recall to his MIND to have such HOPE?
He chose to THINK on 4 aspects of the LORD…
1. I RECALL The LORD’S….LOYAL LOVE…
2. I RECALL The LORD’S… MERCIES…
3. I RECALL The LORD’S… FAITHFULNESS…
4. I RECALL The LORD… was his “PORTION”
And he reaffirms that THINKING on Him … RIGHT thinking about Him as he REMEMBERED Him…” Therefore I have HOPE in HIM”-{Lamentations 3:21-24}.
We all have THOUGHTS about GOD. Some are right, and some are a mixed bag, but only as we THINK RIGHT ABOUT HIM AS HE IS REVEALED IN HIS WORD WILL WE HAVE TRUTH TO STRENGTHEN OUR MINDS! The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of TRUTH and He testifies to Truth in Philippians 4:8 we are told to “THINK on what is TRUE!” We dont get to make up what is TRUE about Him, we are incpable and end up with a “god” of our own imagination, and like the people who built the golden calf when God delivered them from bondage and said- this is the LORD… it was idolatrous and so we too at times have idolatrous THOUGHTS about God, thaat dishonor and blaspheme Him, slandering His character, because they are not based on TRUTH… which alone is found in the WORD OF TRUTH. This is one reason when we are born again we have the capacity to “RENEW OUR MINDS”-{Rom 12:2}
In your trials, sorrows, difficulties, devastation, pain, sorrow, weeping, emotional pain is only natural, human… and we have a Great High Priest who EMPATHIZES with us -{Read Heb 4:15}… but in it God shows us how to have HOPE in HIM and it begins with what you THINK ON… RIGHT THINKING about Him, His character…
Your THINKING… is the GATEWAY to hopelessness or Hope.
What you choose to THINK about determines your destination, hopelessness, or Hope!
“FORK IN THE ROAD.”
Imagine coming up to a “fork in the road,” the choice you make will take you to one of two destinations. How often we have chosen to take the road to HOPELESSNESS, sometimes by ignorance, others by Choice in leaning to our own understanding and looking to our SELF rather than Him and His Word of truth, it has taken us down the road of fears, anxieties, despair, depression, doubts, double-mindedness, unstable, HOPELESSNESS looking at the difficulties and believing the LIES that there is no hope for you.
Now at the “Fork in the Road” again… a new choice. The choice of faith… in Self or God and what He reveals in the SCRIPTURES…
Paul wrote, “these things are WRITTEN that through perseverance and the ENCOURAGEMENT of the SCRIPTURES… YOU…MIGHT…have… HOPE.”– {Rom 15:4.}.One reason God has given us the SCRIPTURES is to ENCOURAGE us so as to birth HOPE in us. That is either True or a lie and the God who gave it is either true or lying and not reliable or trustworthy.
At that statement, you may wish to rise up and feel you need to strongly protest, that God is not a liar! The Tragedy of self-deception is that we affirm that “Yes, God is true and His Word is Right,” and then proceed to think wrong, thinking because we affirm that God is true and His Word is right is sufficient, enough when our actions show we don’t believe He or His Word is true! And this dishonors Him as what we profess we believe and how we behave are in opposition!
OK then, at “the fork in the road” choose to by FAITH take Him at His Word, and CHOOSE WHOM and what you will THINK about to bring you from despair to HOPE… “This I RECALL to MY MIND, therefore I have HOPE…”-{Lam 3:21}
We often think “if the circumstances would change then I would have “hope.”
But does it take a change of circumstances for you to have “hope” or does it take a change of how you and I THINK continuously … RIGHT THINKING about God to produce this HOPE…
To continue down the road of despair is to believe the Lie and deny His Word as sufficient in my times of sorrow, emotional pain and devastation.To say, He is not Trustworthy.
DESPAIR IS A TERRIBLE TRAVELING COMPANION!...
IF YOU KNOW THAT….then change what you choose to THINK on. Realize you do have the power to as the Holy Spirit will empower you as you do!
As you read, or RECALL to your mind what verses speak of …
- His LOVE – { Read John 3:15; Rom 5:8; Gal 2:10; Eph 2:4; 1 John 3:16;Rev 1:5 are some}
- His MERCIES -{Read Lamentations 3:21,24, Eph 2:4; 1 Peter 1:3}
- His Faithfulness -{ 1 Cor 1;9; 1 Cor 10:13; 1 Thess 5:24; Rev 19:11}
Ask Him to RECALL to your Mind how He has shown you His LOVE… MERCIES… FAITHFULNESS To YOU…
And as you THINK RIGHT about Him you will find He will Produce HOPE in your heart… of eternal realities and confident expectation of His bring about good…Hope of a future good… for this is but a chapter in your life, it is not the end for He loves you, His mercies are new each morning for you and His faithfulness is Great towards you.
CHOOSE to THINK RIGHT… about Him… and watch Him lift you up out of the miry pit of despair… and PERSEVERE in your thinking…,and remember Romans 15:4, “these things are written that through PERSEVERANCE and the ENCOURAGEMENT of the Scriptures you might have HOPE.” This could be a good verse for you to memorize and meditate upon and pray. Perhaps place on your bathroom mirror and as you brush your teeth, read word, by word, phrase by phrase and if you do this for a month you would have it memorized and it is fuel for what you think of and the HOLY SPIRIT can bring back to your remembrance to encourage you,Ask by faith for the LORD to fulfill this to you and also to share and pray for others who need encouragement and hope!
If you are discouraged ASK Him to encourage you from His Word by reading or Recalling a verse to your mind, this is something over the years I have asked Him from time to time to ENCOURAGE me…and He has been faithful to do in His LOVE and MERCY!
At the “Fork in the road,” you choose by faith in Him to follow His Word or choose to reject Him and follow your own understanding and way you have always done things and where has that led to in times past ? Despair? Anxieties? Fears? Hopelessness?
Jeremiah shows us how he went from despair to HOPE. Circumstances did not change but his heart, mind were filled with HOPE and it all began by what and who he CHOSE to THINK ON…”This I RECALL to MY MIND, therefore I have HOPE…”- {Lam 3:21}… Paul would write, “whatever things are True… let your mind DWELL on these things.”-Phil 4:8}. Thinking on TRUTH continually and we know truth does what? “… will set you FREE.” -{John 8:31-32.} Free from the LIES…we choose to believe about God, who we are “in Christ,” and our circumstances and what Hope means. We falsely believe that we can have HOPE when we are in charge OF OUR LIVES, CIRCUMSTANCES ARE UNDER OUR CONTROL… AND ARE PLEASANT and at times the circumstances pry away our grip on self reliance with the purpose to bring about God dependency.
Paul knew this when he said, ” For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves SO THAT WE WOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES, BUT IN GOD WHO RAISES THE DEAD.”-{2 Cor 1:8-9}… Trust in Self or God who raises the dead is the only two alternatives we have in any and all circumstances we find ourselves in.
God is not out to destroy you but develop you and reveal Himself to you and Jeremiah as he recalled to his mind found hope amidst devastating heart wrenching fear riddled circumstances, where the choice of what I THINK on is offered and chosen, where we see how real our faith is and who it is anchored in, self or the Savior. In the furnace of affliction our character is being developed. Our faith having the opportunity to grow and it begins with our THINKING RIGHT ABOUT GOD!
Some may object, “I tried that but it did NOT work.” But the question is, at what point did you stop persevering? God is faithful and He will honor HIS Word.-{Rom 15:4}
Does it matter what you fill your MIND with?
The difference is either mastered by damaging, destructive emotions or His Word as ultimate authority in your life. One leads to despair the other to HOPE…
Choose His way and continually be renewing your mind…. TRUTH TRANSFORMS our Thinking when we submit by faith to it-{Read Rom 12:2}
- “This I RECALL to MY MIND, therefore I have HOPE”-{Lam 3:21}
THINK on the LORD’S…
LOVE…
MERCIES…
FAITHFULNESS…
Pick a verse and memorize, meditate, and recall again and again and watch Him change you from despair to HOPE… He has promised… Romans 15:4.
HOPE IN GOD!
God bless,
Aidan.