Today’s post is a guest post from our dear friend, Stacey Thacker.
_______________________
You don’t have to wait for hope. You can have it right now. Several years ago, when Brooke and I were writing Hope for the Weary Mom, God gave us an acronym for the word “HOPE” that made it super easy for us to remember and be able to share it with everyone we meet.
H: Honestly admit where you are
O: Openly invite Christ into your mess
P: Pray continually
E: Encourage your heart with God’s Word
(Hope for the Weary Mom, p 144)
I, for one, am not sad about how easy this is to remember. Because, as I’ve stated before plenty of times, I need hope every. single. day. On the days when I really want to run to Netflix or perhaps a sympathetic girlfriend, I can stir up my hope by moving through the HOPE acronym. It isn’t that those things are necessarily bad. But, when I need what only God can give, I need to go to Him first. I need to honestly pour out my heart, invite Him into my mess, talk to Him on the regular, and open His Word daily.
And Jesus? The One named Hope? He is so kind. He reminds me that this message of hope is really the Gospel. I have landed here time and time again since I first wrote about hope so many years ago. I need him. I can’t. He can. He will.
I only have to ask.
Maybe you are in a place where you need hope every single day too. Or perhaps, you know you need it but you don’t know where to start. Can I make a suggestion? Start today by writing down the word HOPE and what each letter means. Say it out loud before the kids get out of bed, say it while you are making sandwiches at lunch, and remind yourself when you are doing the laundry. Keep speaking hope over your life until you start to believe it.
Hope is here.
Hope is Jesus.
Hope is available right now.
You only have to ask.
