Hydrate your Hope

In keeping with the theme of gardening, I felt a nudge to talk a little more about cultivating.  Remember last week when I talked about the Garden of Friendship and what it is and what is takes to cultivate it?  Well, I want to share a few more words I hope will encourage you.

Just like a garden needs nourishment and sunlight and hydration to flourish, as does many aspects of our life -  I want to share a little about how to hydrate your hope.  During certain times, we may feel that we have lost sight of what we are called to do.  We may lose sight of what lies ahead and how we thought things would turn out.  A lot of uncertainty to say the least.  It can make us anxious, depressed, helpless and hopeless.  At one point or another, we’ve all been there and some of us are there right now. 

So, what can we do to cultivate this area of our life? How can we hydrate our hope? 

Hope is the expectation of a positive outcome in the midst of our circumstances.  It’s the confident expectation of what God has promised.  How has He showed up in the past?  And isn’t He able to show up the same for us right now?  Here are my little nudges to you:

Pray, listen, and respond.  Pray from the very place you’re hurting.  It can be a place of anger, grief, fear or even loneliness.  He can handle all those feelings.  Listen to your hearts promptings as the Lord speaks to you with comforting words and understanding, because He’s in your corner.  He sees you and He hears you.  Respond with gratitude, obedience or action. Does He want you to be that cultivator or encourager to someone else or just be still for the moment? He’s ready when you are to cheer you on or sit with you for a while…as long as it takes. 

It may seem simple, and for some it might be.  But it may also take some time to figure out where to even start.  That’s ok.  He knows the plans He has for us, to give us hope and a future.  Even if the world around us is falling to pieces, there is someone there to walk alongside us every step of the way.