Audacious Hope

Audacious (adj)

-Courage or confidence of a kind that others find shocking

(Cambridge Dictionary)

-Shameless boldness

(Dictionary.com)

Hope

-To trust in, wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future.

Hey there, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, eight months to be exact. It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? I had many hopes when the year began. I carved time out to create a vision board for this year. Armed with a glue gun, lots of glitter and a whole host of arts and crafts articles, I created a beautiful work of art that spoke of my deepest hopes for the year ahead. Needless to say, things did not go the way I expected them to go. I don’t think things went the way any of us expected them to go but yet, here we are with deferred hopes but also the opportunity to hope in spite of what we see. I’m not telling you that you will achieve/receive/be what you hoped for this year. I’m reminding you...us...that there is One in whom we can hope and trust. That One is Jesus Christ.

I don’t know about you but for me, this year has felt like a domino effect of catastrophes. Before I could recover from one, there was another on its heel. There were many times I wanted to give up actually gave up.Yet here I am still standing because of the Lord’s grace alone. I have learned to slow down and take each day as it comes and I am in the process of learning how to fully hope in the Lord, which is what I’d like to leave you with today. The idea of audacious hope, the idea of a hope that is shamelessly bold.

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 40:30-31

It would be easy to give up on life after everything that has happened in the last nine months but we have such a sweet reminder in Isaiah of God’s faithfulness and where our hope should lie. You may have experienced immense loss this year, you may not have the vacation you hoped for or the job you love, you may feel alone, tired, depressed or anxious. I can’t promise you that your circumstances will change today, tomorrow or even this year but I can say with confidence that your strength to endure lies in the Lord alone.

Isaiah reminds us that those who hope IN [trust in, look for, wait for and desire] THE LORD, will renew their strength. That means that each day we decide to trust in Him, our strength is restored and made new. In a year where nothing seems sure, we can have the confidence and boldness to shamelessly hope in Jesus, knowing that He will impart new strength to persevere and endure whatever may come our way. So I pray that we would soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. I pray that we have the audacity to keep on hoping.