Amanda Frey
Rooted in Hope
I’m a very visual person. I love bright colors, flowers, rainbows, and anything that is visually appealing. If someone tries to give me directions through the phone, I definitely will end up lost. I need to SEE the map. I need to visually SEE it laid out. How many times have you found yourself lost or confused because you can’t visually see the map or directions?
That’s why I have a love- hate relationship with traveling. I love traveling because it’s visually appealing, but I hate not knowing where I’m at and how to get from point A to point B. Can you relate? Navigating unfamiliarity is definitely not my friend. If I can’t see the directions and where they are leading me, I end up frustrated, confused, and feeling lost.
Maybe that’s why we sometimes experience tension when walking with Jesus in this life. I love walking hand and hand with Jesus, because the places He leads me are exceedingly and abundantly better than where I would have led myself, but I also find myself navigating through this tension that isn’t comfortable, because I can’t visually SEE my ENTIRE life map. I sometimes find myself gripping tightly back onto control, because I don’t like the unknown. “Remember God, I need to SEE the entire map!” I find myself reminding my Creator. I imagine God smiling at me, with a chuckle, saying, “that’s why it’s called Faith, Daughter.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 AMP says, “And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.” This has always been one of my favorite bible verses because it reminds me to not walk by sight, but rather, by faith, and when I walk by faith, I find that hope and love also remain.
Being a visual person, it’s not always easy for me to walk by faith, because I love to SEE everything. I need to SEE my entire life mapped out. But as soon as I find myself slipping back into walking by sight, I almost always find that my hope starts to slip away. If you observe the world around you with your eyes, it can look pretty hopeless or maybe you’re finding yourself in a situation or circumstance that looks hopeless. I’ve definitely found myself in many situations that looked hopeless. But when I choose to walk by faith my hope always remains.
Faith is the abiding trust in God and His promises. The word Hope in Greek is Elpis and means expectation of good or joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. Fear is the expectation of evil. When you constantly walk by sight, fear is almost always elicited, because you see the evil that is around you or the evil that has happened to you. You start to expect evil, and hopelessness starts to settle in.
But when you walk by faith you are standing on WHO God is and His promises. When you know that He is a good and loving Father and that His promises cannot return void (Isaiah 55:11 ) then you can remain Hopeful, despite what you might see in the world or be experiencing in your present circumstance or situation.
God is a covenant keeping God, so what He has promised you, MUST come to pass! (If you don’t know His promises, I would encourage you to read The Word of God and write down some of His promises that speak directly to you and your situation). When I walk by faith, I can remain rooted in Hope because I know who God is and what He has promised me, despite what I might currently be seeing. But as soon as I start to walk by sight, I lose my hope and fear starts to settle in, until I am paralyzed and stuck in this fear. When I am stuck in fear, other negative emotions flood in and depression starts to settle in. This is the enemy’s tactic: to get us to walk by sight so we end up stuck in fear and the spirit of depression settles over us. Ultimately leaving us ineffective for the purposes of God.
But when we choose to walk by FAITH, we don’t have to know the entire roadmap of our lives and can keep moving forward (despite our situation or circumstances), because we know who’s in control. We know that He is a GOOD Father whose plans are to prosper us and not harm us (Jeremiah 29:11) and He takes what the enemy meant for evil and turns it for our good and His Glory (Genesis 50:20). Today, choose to walk by Faith and not by sight so you can remain rooted in Hope and keep moving forward! God’s working ALL THINGS together for your good (Romans 8:28) and His Promises can not return void!
XO -Amanda
