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"Hope is essential in order for us to live free, particularly when life’s circumstances seem to be robbing us of worldly freedom at every turn."
As quoted from the book “Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society” by John H. Hovis Page 184.
I hope you are in a place where hope isn't all you have. For the vast majority of us, there is enough going right in our lives to make hope something that we don't have to put a lot of thought to. And, that's a good thing! It is when the bottom falls out of our lives when hope becomes something that is key to literally getting out of bed in the morning.
My wife and I have a nephew, named James who lives not too far from us. He married an amazing woman, named Gini and started a beautiful family. They, like so many of us never thought hope would play such and important role in their lives until their first child was born.
Kiley was came into this world September of 2004. She made her enterence into the family as my wife's brother's first grandchild. Now, that's a big deal. To top it off, it was my wife's parent's first great-grandchild. There is such a rush of feelings on so many levels when that first comes along.
Not long after Kiley was born, James and Gini started noticing things that troubled them about her development. They did all they could to just chalk it up to normal but pretty soon their concern pushed them to dig a little deeper into what might be going on with this precious little girl.
After a bunch of tests and a lot of prayers the doctors delivered some devastating news. Kiley had a chromosome issue called Angleman's Syndrome. Angleman's comes with a pretty scary prognosis. Seizures, difficulty walking, no verbal communication, eating issues, sleep disorders and arrested mental development to name a few. In what seemed like an instant, this amazing family was turned up side down. Don't you know that hope took on a real and profound role in the lives of these parents when they learned the news about their daughter?
Not long after they found out the diagnosis, James and Gini began what has become a highlight of my week. Every Tuesday family, friends and people all around the world link together at 7pm California time and we pray for Kiley's healing. As of this post, over 600 Tuesdays have come and gone. Some amazing miracles have been witnessed, like Kiley walking, significantly less seizures than expected and Kiley's amazing ability to feed herself just to name a few. Although these are incredible answers to prayer, we still wait for her to speak and to be completely healed.
At a prayer time not too long ago, we sat down and did a little inventory as to what has happened over this past decade or so in prayer. As I sit back and think about our amazing conversation, I now see that most of what we have been through is an amazing journey can be boiled down to a transformation in the area of hope.
At the beginning of our prayer time, hope looked a bit like desperation. And so it should have! We were desperate to see God move in ways we carefully laid out to Him in our community and personal prayer times. Healing was the hope we all grasped for and hung on to. Gini has told me more than once that if she didn't have hope for Kiley's healing she's not sure she could function each and every day with this extremely difficult diagnosis.
As time went on, and the complete healing we all cried out for didn't come, there was a lot of feelings that had to be dealt with. Was God withholding his healing hand because of something we had done? Was there hidden sin in our lives He was waiting for us to eliminate before He moved so decisively in Kiley's situation? Could it be that we just aren't praying enough or in the right way?
I hope you can hear the victim thinking undertones in all these possibilities we had to consider. It is when the things we hope for are slow in coming that we can begin to question our victor identities to the point where God's love might not look like it is something we can ever expect.
The Bible says this about hope.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NIV)
Hope was and is critical to having a healthy heart. What can get us into places where we are challenged to the core is when we place our hope in areas where we really have no control. At the beginning of our prayer time, we all desperately needed to have hope in Kiley's complete healing. Not that this is a wrong hope, it is just that we can never figure out God or His ways such that expectations tied to hope might be something that leads to disappointment, discouragement and ultimately victim thinking.
In praying for Kiley, we have learned an important lesson for the victor to apply. We will never be disappointed when we hope in God but might find disappointment when we have expectations that are based in hope in what God might do. This is the same when it comes to our identities. It isn't what we do that makes us who we are. It is who we are that can be counted on in this changing and challenging world. Same goes for God. It isn't what God might or might not do that makes us able to live in a place of secured hope. It is in who God is that makes hope have all the power we need to move forward in our lives.
Believe me, we still pray for and long for Kiley's complete healing. That's what we are suppose to do. James has said it over and over again that until such time God tells us to not pray for Kiley's healing we will continue to do so. One would think that after 13 years it would get boring. You want to know something, it hasn't. Why? I think it is because our hope has shifted to something strong and unshakable - God's character. Had we stayed focused on God's actions as the basis for our hope, I think we all would have given up praying a long time ago. I can think God for Kiley's condition because without it I would have been stuck in victim thinking brought on by holding out for hope in action rather than being grounded in hope for character. This would have robbed me of the incredible foundation of living like the victor God has called me to be. I believe James and Gini would echo these sentiments as well.
Hope is essential for life, especially when life takes a turn for the worse. It is totally normal to hope in what God might do but don't get stuck there - there is so much more to hope for than just action. Our only hope in this world is to have hope in who God is, not what He might do.
Gini says it this way, "I am a lucky woman. Each and every day I wake up to the possibility that this might be the day I might see a miracle of Biblical proportions. Not everyone can say this about their lives" Now those are the words of a victor if I've ever heard them. Until that happens, James & Gini do the best they can to walk this life out as the victor's God has made them to be. I hope you will join them walking that same walk as you too might be in a position where your victory is slow in coming.
Hope is essential. Hope is there. Grab on to it and hold on for all you are worth. God's love, His character and the identity He has given you is the basis for that hope. Let that hope be what makes this day your best in spite of how this world will try and rob you of the hope necessary to move in the power God has given to His Children.
In praying for Kiley, we have learned an important lesson for the victor to apply. We will never be disappointed when we hope in God but might find disappointment when we have expectations that are based in hope in what God might do. This is the same when it comes to our identities. It isn't what we do that makes us who we are. It is who we are that can be counted on in this changing and challenging world. Same goes for God. It isn't what God might or might not do that makes us able to live in a place of secured hope. It is in who God is that makes hope have all the power we need to move forward in our lives.
Believe me, we still pray for and long for Kiley's complete healing. That's what we are suppose to do. James has said it over and over again that until such time God tells us to not pray for Kiley's healing we will continue to do so. One would think that after 13 years it would get boring. You want to know something, it hasn't. Why? I think it is because our hope has shifted to something strong and unshakable - God's character. Had we stayed focused on God's actions as the basis for our hope, I think we all would have given up praying a long time ago. I can think God for Kiley's condition because without it I would have been stuck in victim thinking brought on by holding out for hope in action rather than being grounded in hope for character. This would have robbed me of the incredible foundation of living like the victor God has called me to be. I believe James and Gini would echo these sentiments as well.
Hope is essential for life, especially when life takes a turn for the worse. It is totally normal to hope in what God might do but don't get stuck there - there is so much more to hope for than just action. Our only hope in this world is to have hope in who God is, not what He might do.
Gini says it this way, "I am a lucky woman. Each and every day I wake up to the possibility that this might be the day I might see a miracle of Biblical proportions. Not everyone can say this about their lives" Now those are the words of a victor if I've ever heard them. Until that happens, James & Gini do the best they can to walk this life out as the victor's God has made them to be. I hope you will join them walking that same walk as you too might be in a position where your victory is slow in coming.
Hope is essential. Hope is there. Grab on to it and hold on for all you are worth. God's love, His character and the identity He has given you is the basis for that hope. Let that hope be what makes this day your best in spite of how this world will try and rob you of the hope necessary to move in the power God has given to His Children.
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