At least three times in the Psalms we read: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:5). Can’t you see the Psalmist talking to himself—like he’s looking himself in the eyes and reminding himself: What’s the matter with you? Why are you so down? Just put your hope in God.

You see, when we lose hope it’s because we’ve taken our minds off our Savior and we’re focused on ourselves, our problem, our failures, our inability to make things right. So, if you need to nourish hope in your life, begin by quoting this verse from Psalm 42:5 – memorize it so it's right there ready when you need it. Then drive out all those wrong thoughts that are filling your mind with hopelessness by remembering the hope you have because of Jesus.

For example, suppose you’ve just given up hope that things are going to get better on your job, that the coworker who makes your life miserable will ever change, or that your boss will ever recognize and appreciate what you do. It just looks hopeless to you and therefore you are losing your motivation to work hard and do your work with excellence. You need hope! So what can you do?

Talk to yourself like the Psalmist did: Stop thinking about everything that is wrong. Think about what is right! Right there on the job, in the midst of the hopeless situation, put your hope in God. He is trustworthy; his word is true. You won’t be disappointed. But you have to make the choice to pursue hope.

And quite simply, that means you have to spend time in God’s Word and prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to give you hope. We have a God of hope—he has an inexhaustible supply of hope for you. Ask him for hope today. Choose hope today.

How is your hope? Paul wrote to the Romans, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Would you say that you are “overflowing with hope”? And what would that look like?

Think about the times in your life when you are really struggling. Your faith is weak, the circumstances seem to get worse, you feel like quitting, you want to run away, things are just not good. What is missing in those times? It’s hope, isn’t it? You’ve lost hope that God is going to come through, or that those difficult people in your life will ever change, or that life will ever get easier. The loss of hope leads eventually to depression and at its extreme, to no longer wanting to live.

Hope is absolutely essential to your life. You cannot make it without hope. And in this passage Paul gives the secret—the pathway—that will give you overflowing hope. Two things: you must trust in the God of hope, and secondly, you must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. So, if you want to overflow with hope and know the joy and peace that hope brings, you have to be intentional about trusting in God.

Putting your trust in God means that you deliberately choose to believe God loves you, God cares for you, and God has good plans for you. You trust when you cannot see or understand. Hope comes as you decide that you will trust God—and conversely, hope dies when you worry, when you are fearful, when you forget to trust God.

I know it’s easy to say, “Just trust God” and it may seem trite when you’re in the midst of despair. But, dear friends, trust is a choice you and I must make and it’s not once and done. Most of the time it’s a daily choice—sometimes several times a day—when you speak truth to yourself and choose hope. Here’s the good news: if you are born again through faith in Jesus, you have the power to do this because you have the Holy Spirit. So, it’s a matter of turning that power on and choosing hope.

No doubt you are familiar with the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 which says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Faith, hope and love are absolute essentials in our lives as Christians. They are the three qualities which always remain. They make us strong, and when the three join together—when we are full of faith, hope and love—then we are balanced and ready to go forward with what God has planned for us to do.

We talk more about faith and love that we do hope, as a rule, but honestly, life without hope is no life at all. Hope is mentioned in the Bible more than 167 times. But have you ever asked why hope is so important?

Well, first we need to understand the difference between our casual use of the word “hope,” and the Bible’s meaning. Often we talk about hope when something in the future is not certain. We say, I hope it won’t rain today or I hope I’ll get a raise. But when the Bible speaks of hope, it means that something in the future is certain. It means you can be confident because your hope in God is firm and secure. For example, when we are born from above through faith in Jesus Christ, we have the hope of eternal life. But that hope is certain and sure; there’s no uncertainty in that hope for our future.

Why is hope so important to us in our daily lives and in our hearts and minds? Well, for one reason, hope gives us an eternal perspective. Hope helps us to see beyond the present circumstances and believe that there are good days ahead. When we are at our lowest point, hope lifts our head, convinces us that we have a future and a hope, as we read in Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

Hope is what we’re focusing on here at The Christian Working Woman this month. God has plans for you if you are a Christ-follower, and those plans give you hope, even though you may not know exactly what they are right at this moment.

A friend once said to me, “I feel like a total failure,” I was taken aback, because she is anything but a total failure. But I know the feeling, don't you? Maybe that's the way you feel. Perhaps your plans and dreams have never materialized or something you attempted didn't work. Or maybe you've failed in your moral behavior or in your lifestyle and habits. How in the world can we face our failures without being devastated?

I truly do speak from my heart as I approach this topic of failure. If experience qualifies me as an expert, then I feel fairly competent to talk about failure, because I've had my share. There are some gigantic failures in my past, things for all the world to see, and there are others which are smaller, known only to God and me.

I haven't outgrown failure; none of us do. But I know this beyond any doubt: the God I serve is great enough to give me the strength and the ability to face my failures and to recover from them. In fact, in his incredible efficiency, he uses my failures to teach me and to help me encourage others.

Maybe you are even now struggling with failure. You feel totally defeated and discouraged because you've failed in some way. Maybe you keep failing in the same way over and over, and you're ashamed and guilt-ridden as a result. I want to talk to you from my heart today, as one who is in that same boat with you, but who is learning the good news that failures don't have to be fatal.

Let me first share with you the blessings of failure. I know, you didn't think there were any blessings in failure, but believe me, there are. Here's what I mean. One of the most difficult things for any of us human beings to admit is that we are sinful. None of us truly want to believe that deep within us is this sin nature which tries to control us; none of us like to think that we are not capable in ourselves of doing good or being good.

That's because we're born proud. Pride is at the root of all our wrong thinking and actions. We have to come to the understanding that within us there is no good thing and all the things which we call good look like filthy rags to God. On our own we're just one huge mess! So, this inborn pride can keep us from knowing God, from the fullness of who we are in Christ.

Therefore, failure is a blessing, for it teaches us just exactly who we are in our natural, unredeemed condition. C. S. Lewis states it so well in his book Mere Christianity: Speaking of failure he says: "It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven."

So, those failures which look like total disasters to you can indeed be an instrument of blessing to teach you this essential truth about yourself; to "cure your illusions about yourself," as Lewis puts it. I know they're painful; I know it is an unpleasant lesson to learn. But, dear friends, until we know the depth of our fallen state and how truly helpless and hopeless we are on our own, we can never know God as we need to.

I want to look again at a story of failure in Scripture and see how our Lord dealt with it. You'll find it recorded in Luke 22, where we see Peter as a total failure. Did you ever think about the fact that Jesus knew beforehand precisely how badly Peter would fail him? He tells Peter exactly what Peter's going to do and when: "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” Jesus knew, and yet, he didn't discard Peter because of his miserable failure.

In Luke 22:31 Jesus said, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” It’s interesting that Jesus called Peter "Simon,” his old name,

I’m usually a bit reluctant to suggest another thing you need to do. After all, you are busy as it is, and you probably think that you can’t add one more thing to your life, to your to-do list, to your schedule.

I understand that, but it became clear to me a few weeks ago that God wanted us here at The Christian Working Woman to offer you a new opportunity. Yes, it will take some time; yes, you will need to be committed; yes, you may have to clear your schedule out a bit. But honestly, if I can inspire you to take seriously this challenge, you will thank me because it is life changing.

We have put together a way to help you memorize Scripture—hide it in your heart—so that you can grow spiritually faster and better than ever before, if indeed you’ve never taken Scripture memorization seriously. Here’s what a good friend of mine said that memorizing Scripture has done for her:

Memorizing has brought assurance and guidance and wisdom and stability and joy and hope in my thinking. Yes, it’s harder to memorize now as an adult, but I’m convinced of its importance as an anchor for the soul and renewing the mind and keeping my thinking in line with the Gospel.

Would you like to experience a new joy in your walk with God? Would you like to have this one weapon we have as believers, the word of God, so deeply hidden within you that you can know new victory and new joy? It’s available to you if you will memorize Scripture. We are here to help you do that. You can join with us—there is no cost—and become a part of a community of believers who together have decided to fill their minds with truth. Truth that will set you free.

It's one of the best gifts you could ever give yourself. All the details are available here. Honestly, this is one of the best offers I’ve ever made to you because I know the difference it will make in your life.

(Click here to read or download the entire week's message.)

I am truly excited to tell you about a new initiative we’ve begun here at The Christian Working Woman which is called The Hidden Word. This is a simple way to encourage you to join me in a regular program of memorizing Scripture because it is the most powerful thing you can do to be all that God has created you to be and to do the good works he put you here to do.

But I can imagine that you have mentally turned me off about right now because you have decided that you cannot memorize Scripture; it’s too hard or you’re not good at it or you’re too old—or whatever other excuse you’ve come up with. Well, if you do that, you will miss out on a blessing that will truly make a difference in your life. So, what are the benefits of Scripture memorization? Here are just a few:

You’ll have victory over sin. Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

You’ll be more like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” You contemplate the Lord’s glory by meditating on his Word and memorizing verses will cause you to contemplate the Lord much more.

You’ll be able to stand against all of Satan’s attacks that he throws at you, just as Jesus withstood his attacks when he was tempted in the wilderness by quoting Scripture. And he could quote it because it was hidden in his heart. (Matthew 4:1-11)

You will have words of comfort and wisdom for others in need. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” Because you will have God’s word hidden in your heart, you’ll be ready to speak beautiful words on the spur of the moment as the Holy Spirit brings those hidden words to your mind.

You’ll be ready to share your faith with others. 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

And there are many more incredible benefits available to you, so I invite you to join us and be part of The Hidden Word. All the details are here.

Would you like to know one thing you can do that will make a greater impact for spiritual growth in your life than anything else? it is memorizing Scripture and hiding it in your heart.

Dallas Willard was recognized as a spiritual development scholar, and here is what he wrote:

“Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs.”

Dear friend, he was so right. We are what we think, and we think about what we put into our minds. Dallas called it a “spiritual discipline,” as most people do, but I prefer to call it a spiritual birthright. It is your right if you are born again through faith in Christ to be transformed in ways you never thought possible by taking advantage of this privilege to hide God’s word in your heart.

So, we have a new opportunity to offer you; I’m calling it The Hidden Word, and if you want to join with me, we are initiating a new program that will give structure to this spiritual birthright. You can join with others as we memorize various passages of Scripture together, within a time frame, and we will become a community of people who have The Hidden Word in our hearts. We will encourage you; you will get to know others with the same intention, if you wish, and it will indeed become a transformational force for all of us, through the power of God’s word and the Holy Spirit.

If this strikes a note in your heart, as it has mine, please join with me and become a part of The Hidden Word. All the details are now available here. There is absolutely no cost for you to join with us, but instead there is great treasure for you if you purpose to hide God’s word in your heart.

Chances are you are familiar with this verse from Psalm 119:11:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

When you hide something in your heart, it’s there to stay, isn’t it? It’s in a place where no one can take it from you—it’s hidden there for you whenever you need it. And the Psalmist notes that hiding God’s word in that special place gives you victory over sin.

Is there some sin in your life—maybe something nobody knows about but you—but some habit or addiction or sinful way that you haven’t been able yet to conquer? You want to but as hard as you try, it just sticks around. Have you hidden God’s word in your heart? That’s the secret to living a pure life that pleases the Lord. That’s the secret to being a victorious Christian who blesses many others because of that hidden word.

Here at The Christian Working Woman I’ve decided to make this a high priority for me and to encourage others to join me. I’m calling this new program The Hidden Word, and we have designed a simple program to help you hide God’s word in your heart. Some people call Scripture memorization a spiritual discipline, but I prefer to call it a spiritual benefit that is ours when we are Christians.

The Bible says “But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25). I can testify to this because my dear mother memorized Scripture all her life. She had a plan that she followed; it was a discipline, but she never thought of it that way. It was her delight. And because she had hidden God’s word in her heart so faithfully for so many years, she grew sweeter and more Christ-like as she aged. And in the last years, when dementia was taking a toll, many things she could not remember, but she could quote the Word of God because it was hidden in her heart and nobody could take it away from her. It endured forever.

No doubt you’ve heard of “spiritual disciplines.” These are things we need to do in order to grow spiritually, such as reading your Bible, praying, fellowship with other believers, memorizing Scripture, etc. Frankly, I would like to find another word to describe these things because the word “discipline” just has so much baggage attached to it.

Discipline conjures up in our minds controls, regulations, rules, strictness—words that are not naturally inviting, wouldn’t you agree? I would rather call them spiritual benefits, spiritual privileges, spiritual birthrights—something like that. These are the things that make a huge difference in our growth as Christ-followers when we incorporate them into our daily lives. The benefits of these spiritual privileges are uniquely available to those who have been born again through faith in Christ.

So, are you taking advantage of your spiritual birthrights? Recently God put it on my heart to make it a high priority in my life to memorize Scripture on a more regular basis and encourage others to join me. We are beginning a new opportunity here at The Christian Working Woman, which I am calling “The Hidden Word.” The purpose is to encourage and inspire you to make memorizing Scripture a priority in your life, to give you a structured way you can do it, and to encourage you in every way possible to keep at it.

Why? Because this spiritual privilege has benefits like no other. From his book, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, Chuck Swindoll wrote:

“I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! . . .Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified.”

Sounds like a deal too good to pass up.

Here is a wonderful verse from Galatians 5:1: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

I do believe the most common thing that keeps us in bondage is fear. In his book Imagine Your Life without Fear, Max Lucado writes: “Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness…And it turns us into control freaks…Fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control.”

Now just think about that for a minute. Fear causes us to lose trust in God. Fear and faith can never coexist. So, note that any time fear is taking over your mind, faith has just been put out to pasture. When we lose faith in God and his goodness—though we never verbalize it that way, and we wouldn’t admit it—we begin to try to take control and do what we think is best. We do indeed become control freaks!

Fear Is Sin

The first thing you must do to be set free from fear is recognize how sinful it is for you to be fearful for that means you have abandoned your trust in God in that area. How dare we not trust our trustworthy God? This was the beginning of my learning to trust God many years ago. I finally realized that I was afraid to trust God. Whatever other fears I had, they began with my fear of trusting God. And it finally dawned on me that my fear of trusting God was indeed a sin against the God who is totally trustworthy.

We lose trust in people when they prove not to be trustworthy—right? They promised you something and didn’t come through. They failed you time and again, and you’ve concluded they just are not trustworthy. But has God ever failed you? Has one promise of his ever failed?

2 Corinthians 1:20: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

I was afraid to trust God because I feared he had a plan for my life that was not what I wanted. I somehow thought my plan was better than his, and I couldn’t trust his plan because it might take me where I didn’t want to go. I couldn’t run the risk of allowing God to direct my path. Now, had you asked me at that time if I was afraid to trust God, no doubt I would have said “no.” You see, I didn’t see it for what it really was—a fear of trusting God. When it finally dawned on me that this fear was like a slap in the face of God, I was appalled at my sin.

That’s because I had begun—finally—to invest time and passion into getting to know God, and the more you get to know God, the more you believe in him and trust him. So, if there is some fear in your life, the root cause of it is that you are afraid to trust God in that place, which probably means you need to get to know him better. To know him is to trust him.

Pockets of Fear

Why do we trust God in some areas and not in others? Because we have pockets of fear—areas where it's more difficult for us to trust than others. You may be able to identify the sources of that fear—the things that happened to you in years past that cause that fear. It’s usually a good idea to understand why there are some pockets of fear in your life that have not yet been abolished.

But it’s not a good idea to stay mired in that fear. You can blame others, but it doesn’t solve the problem. You can throw pity parties and feel sorry for yourself, but it doesn’t get rid of the fear. You can talk about it and think about it and re-tell it as many times as you like, but that never does any good—just makes it seem larger than it is.

First, you have to recognize that your fear is an attack of the enemy on your life. God never gives you a spirit of fear. Obviously, there are some things and situations where fear is appropriate. We teach our children to fear some things like fire, crossing busy streets, talking with strangers, rattlesnakes—things like that.