THE HOPE ATTITUDE
Part 1

“Now the God hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost”
(Romans 15:13).

I woke up the other night with the above Scripture pounding into my mind.

This Scripture does not tell us to abound in hope only when everything is going well. It is an attitude we should have no matter what we face. Sadly, much of the current attitude is doom and gloom. And even worse, the spirit of fear. But this shouldn’t be the attitude of those who call themselves believers.

If God is truly our God, we will live in hope. Why? Because our God is a GOD OF HOPE! Yes, did you read those words? They are truth. God is a GOD OF HOPE! No matter what is happening in our individual lives or in the world, God is still in control, and when He dwells in us by the power of His Holy spirit, we dwell in hope.

Would you like to know the full meaning of the Greek word for hope? It is the word “elpis” and means:

• An energizing principle
• A spontaneous overflowing spirit of optimism
• A looking ever on the bright side of things
• A looking forward to only that which is good
• Believing that God is going to do something good
• Confident expectation
• Expecting continued blessing and joy
• Exuberant hopefulness, leaving us no room for worry
• To anticipate with pleasure

We can’t work this kind of attitude up. It comes through the power of the Holy Spirit who resides in our hearts. It’s is God’s attitude and therefore it becomes our attitude when He dwells in us.

And it is not a dead hope. It is a living hope. 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that we are born again unto “a living hope.” My grandson, Zadok, was talking to me about this hope yesterday. “Nana,” he said. “Because it is a living hope, we must feed it. If you don’t feed something that is alive, it soon dies.”

Are you feeding the spirit of hope that God has put within you? We feed it by . . .

• Living in the Word
• Standing on the truth of God’s Word
• Confessing God’s Word out loud
• Confessing our confidence and expectation in God
• Believing and confessing that God is doing good things! It is the opposite to doom and gloom and fear.

The other day I posted on my personal Facebook the fact that there is not one case of the corona virus in our country in Tennessee! Not one. Nor has our closest hospital had one hospitalization, and that’s a different county! What totally surprised me is that not one person acknowledged this good news with a positive comment. No one said:  “Praise the Lord that you have none in your country. That’s wonderful.” Or “God is good. That’s great news.” Instead, even though this was good news, most of the comments were full of fear and doom and gloom.

Dear ladies, it concerns me that many are living in fear rather than hope.

Are we believers or are we nonbelievers? If we are truly believers, we will live in hope. Not a surviving hope, but a LIVING and ABOUNDING hope.

Let’s change gears from becoming victims of fear and a lot of information that is not true! Let’s be who we say we are. Let’s be believers who . . .

• Live in hope
• Speak words of hope to our family members
• Speak hope to a hurting and fearful world around us
• Release the spirit of hope instead of the spirit of fear
• Keep hoping when there is no reason to hope (Romans 4:18).

NANCY CAMPBELL

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Father, I acknowledge You as the God of hope. Please save me from living in despair when You are Hope and you live in me. I acknowledge Your word of truth: “Christ in me, the HOPE of glory.” I thank You that no matter what is going on in my nation and in the world, I have hope. I believe You are working everything out for good. I trust You implicitly. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am living in confident expectation that God is doing good things!