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.

(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

Twenty-five years ago there was a marketing campaign called “Got Milk?” Remember that? Now you may not be old enough to remember it, but it was a campaign to get people to drink more milk.

You would see pictures of celebrities with big smiles on their faces along with a very pronounced milk mustache making it obvious that they had been drinking the white dairy drink.

The Got Milk? Campaign showed consumers what could happen if they ever ran out of milk: everything from cookies to cereal to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches would be ruined without it.

When I think of that catchy and memorable slogan (that I recall 25 years later!), I am inclined to change it to, “Got Hope?”

Running out of milk is one thing—it can make your cereal dry and boring but don’t run out of hope. Hope is as necessary to life as the air we breathe. It’s what sustains us and keeps us alive.

Hope never runs out because Jesus is constant. He never fails. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But if we are not careful, mindful and intentional about focusing our hope in Jesus we will run out.

And I just want to clarify something. When we have hope we are not saying we will avoid pain, suffering and loss in our lives. When we’ve “Got Hope” it does not mean we’ll never be disappointed. Hope and disappointment, hope and suffering can coexist. In fact, for followers of Jesus they do coexist because Jesus is our hope and we do not put hope in anything else. Not a pain free life or a perfect marriage.

Hope, Jesus, keeps us going through painful experiences and fear of what the future may hold.

Hope is not simply optimism. It is assurance—trust, faith, and belief in the promises of God. In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

When you are confronted with the questions, Got Hope?, respond with a resounding Yes! I have Jesus and he is my living hope.

When people see you living with hope, especially when life is chaotic and unpredictable (kind of like the last two years) we point to Jesus when we respond with faith, with peace, with hope.

(Click here If you would like to download the entire week's message.)

(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

The next hope builder is preaching the truth to yourself.

I don’t know of a better way to be reminded of the hope we have in Jesus than to spend time in his Word, meditating on it and letting truth wash over our minds and purify our hearts.

Psalm 1:2-3a reminds us that, “Those whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither….”

As we anchor ourselves in hope today let’s look to Psalm 23 which reminds us of the truth of who Jesus is. Our Shepherd. And who we are. The flock under his care.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness, mercy and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:1-6 ).

As followers of Jesus it can be easy to get preoccupied, overwhelmed, and distracted and take our focus off of our true hope, Jesus. We can easily fall into the trap of forgetting who God is.

Consider memorizing Psalm 23. A few years ago I read a book about Psalm 23 and the author encouraged his readers to commit it to memory. I memorized these words several years ago and let me tell you, being able to quickly rehearse these truths has been a lifesaver time and time again. In fact, Psalm 119:11 instructs us to store up God’s Word in our heart. Memorizing scripture is an important practice as we love and follow Jesus.

Remember that Jesus is your Shepherd. He watches closely over you.

(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

Where does your hope come from? What do we do when we feel hopeless? Have a posture of praise.

When things in life are not going the way we want, it can be easy to be discouraged and fall into despair. We can forget God’s faithfulness. Sometimes the last thing we feel like doing is praising God. But praising him is not something we do when we feel like it. Blessing God and worshiping him is a daily practice as a follower of Jesus. Not conditional, only when life is going the way we planned, but a daily discipline because God is faithful and worthy of all of our praise.

When we intentionally position ourselves in a posture of praise to God, we are reminded of the hope we have in Jesus.

My friend Becky, author of “The 30-Day Praise Challenge,” says “Praise is your intentional offering of worship, strengthening your faith and unlocking the key to joy no matter what your life circumstance.”

In Psalm 103 King David, who experienced all kinds of trials, tribulations, betrayals, disappointments and despair in his life instructs his heart to praise. He says “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (ESV)

To bless means to kneel, to praise. It gives us a visual of David’s posture of praise. David is not giving God a holy high five. He is not giving God a half-hearted blessing. He is saying, with my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God! David speaks directly to his heart.

It reminds me of Psalm 150:6: “Let everything that has breath praise The Lord.”

Did you know that God in his magnificence actually wired us for worship? God designed us so that worship literally impacts our brains, our minds. Studies have shown that worship induces happiness and joy, it boosts our immune system. We often wait to worship until we feel like it but we are actually wired to worship.

God knows when we worship him our lives are transformed, even if our circumstances don’t change. Worship changes us.

So if you want to experience more hope in your life, praise the source of your hope, Jesus. Ask him to bring to mind all of the ways he has been faithful. Ask him to draw your heart close to him. Get on your knees and pray, bowing down in adoration and wonder to the Lord. Turn on some praise music. Put yourself in a posture of praise and let hope arise.

You are wired for worship.

(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

Lasting hope comes when we don’t rely on our limited knowledge and wisdom.

Our next hope builder is found in Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

When we rely on our own perspective it can be easy to lose hope. All too often I can be prone to rely on my own understanding in life. And time and time again my knowledge has been so incredibly limited. We can never see the full picture but God does and so Proverbs reminds us to seek and lean on him and not our own limited view.

So many of the things that cause us the most difficulty and heartache in life, the source of so much of our anxiety, fear, doubt, despair, is the result of leaning on our own understanding. In exercising faith — we determine to trust fully in the Lord, to ask him to help us see his ways and to acknowledge and express our gratitude to him. To trust him because we know his character. And as we trust and hope in him, he will make our paths straight.

Do you trust God? Do you measure God’s trustworthiness based on your circumstances? On whether or not things are going the way that you think they should in life?

Are you trusting in what you can see, leaning on your own limited and often flawed perception of reality? Or are you putting your confidence, hope, and trust in the unchanging character and wisdom of Jesus?

There have been times in my life where I have asked God Why are you letting this happen to me? Or, Why are you withholding this dream or desire from me? All the while, he knew if I got that thing or stayed in that relationship, it would not end well.

There have been times I have thoroughly convinced myself that I was right about something only to find out I was dead wrong. I took matters into my own hands because I did not think God cared or saw me and that led to unnecessary pain and suffering.

In Isaiah 55:9 God says, “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, my ways are higher than your ways.”

He is saying, “Will you trust me?” “Will you put your hope in me, even when, especially when life is not making sense?”

So when life does not seem to be making sense let’s be wise, not leaning on our own understanding but acknowledging and putting our hope in Jesus.

(Presented by Lisa Bishop)

What are some ways to build hope?

Proverbs 3:5-6 has this wisdom.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

The Hebrew word for trust here means to be bold, confident, secure, and certain in who we put our confidence in. It means, make to hope. So when I trust God with all my heart the result is hope. I am confident and secure in putting my trust in him as he alone is my source of hope. Who or what we put our trust in, has a huge impact on our lives as followers of Christ.

The word Lord in these verses is translated Yehovah in Hebrew. Yehovah is the proper name of the one true God. Back in Old Testament times, much like today, people were putting their trust and hope in other gods—the god of money, fertility, the sun god, the god of fire, to name a few. They were depending on and placing their confidence in small gods, idols, but not the one true God. So here we are instructed to put our full confidence and hope in the one true God, Yehovah.

If we are honest, it can be tempting to put our trust and confidence in things, people, and circumstances and to not fully put our hope in Jesus. We too can look to things other than Jesus to provide hope: relationships, career, kids, our health, our wealth. But those things will not ultimately bring the satisfaction, the hope our hearts long for.

Trusting in the Lord with all my heart reminds me of the song Solid Rock.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly trust in Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Who or what are you putting your trust, your hope in? Confess to Jesus and ask him to help you properly place your confidence in him.

(As Presented by Lisa Bishop)

The past 2 years have thrown a lot of curve balls our way. I’m wondering what last year was like for you. What were some of the things you had hoped would happen but didn’t? What are some things you had hoped would not happen but did? And, how is your hope as this new year has gotten under way?

Webster's dictionary definition of hope is: A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it. Or an expectation or optimism for the future.

We’ve all been there, hoping for something. Maybe you have hoped for a new job, a relationship, a new home or a promotion, good news of a child after years of battling with infertility. Maybe you have hoped that your son or daughter would get their life on track or that a broken relationship would be restored. Perhaps you have hoped for healing of a disease or physical ailment for yourself or someone close to you.

I have had many hopes over the years. Some things I have hoped for came to fruition. Others didn’t. For years I hoped for marriage. I hoped that that special someone would notice me and choose me to be their wife. And along with marriage, I hoped one day to have kids. Today I am 52, single, never married and I don’t have children.

Almost eight years ago my dad unexpectedly fell ill. I hoped he would recover, but he didn't.

For several years I had hoped that God would bring me a new job. The one I was in felt like a dead end and I wasn’t passionate about it. I experienced a stirring for a career that felt meaningful. It took seven years until a new job, one that was in alignment with my calling, came my way.

We all have expectations and longings. We all hope.

What do we do when what we hope for, what we long for, doesn’t happen? How will we act when things do not turn out the way that we want or not in our timing?

Hope is an important Christian virtue, it’s a standard of our Christian faith. And hope is essential especially as we seek to stay grounded in the midst of life’s challenges, losses and disappointments. Because let’s face it, life will have disappointments. So how do we maintain hope?

In Proverbs 13:12 King Solomon penned these words of wisdom: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

When something we hope for is delayed it can cause despair and affliction. Unmet longing can make us heart sick. When was a time in your life that you experienced despair when something you hoped for did not come to fruition, was postponed or delayed?

In the second part of Proverbs 13:12 Solomon gives the antithesis of hope deferred when he says, “But a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” The tree of life represents the renewal of life.

When our hopes and desires are fulfilled, we are refreshed. When our prayers are answered, we are encouraged. When we obtain the good thing that we desire, our souls feel revived. Solomon reiterates the sentiment in Proverbs 13:19: “A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul.”

The reality is that dashed hopes can sicken the heart, and the higher the expectations, the greater the potential for despair. So what do we make of Solomon’s words on hope?

God created us to desire; he created us to have hope.

While receiving what we desire can be an excellent and fulfilling thing, we must not allow the pursuit of it, the fulfillment of it to become the ultimate. As followers of Jesus, we must know and believe that our ultimate hope is in him. Our hope is in the giver of all good things, not the good things themselves.

When we misplace our true hope and an unmet desire and expectation turns to hopelessness, we can become spiritually dried up and really vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks.

Have you ever had the run-away blues? The run-away blues are those days, those times in your life when you’d just love to run away. When the thought of going to the airport and catching the next flight out to anywhere else, rather than where you are, sounds like a really good idea. Run-away blues—who hasn’t had those days?

David expressed it so well in Psalm 55. He was in a bad place then; his enemies were threatening him, his mind was a jumbled mess, his heart was in anguish and he was frightened. Now mind you, that was the condition of King David, a man after God’s own heart, who was chosen by God to be the King of Israel. David, why would you want to run-away? But listen to what he wrote:

“I said, ‘Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm’” (Psalm 55:6-8).

David was doing what he was supposed to do, as God’s-appointed king, and yet he longed to fly away and be at rest. Are you right now where David was then? Well, aren’t you glad he was inspired by God to put his feelings in writing and leave them for you? It says that you aren’t condemned for feeling like you want to run away. Even kings have those times. But you have a God who cares and who can bring release and relief for you, right there where you are.

After expressing his run-away desires and fears to God, David then says:

“As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. . . Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken” (Psalm 55:16-17, 22).

I want to leave you with these words of hope, from a king who wanted to fly away from where God had planted him. Even in the midst of doing what God has called you to do, you can lose your bloom and the enemy can steal your joy. If that’s where you are, just call to God—cry out to him. Cast your cares on the Lord, and he will put a new bloom inside you, and your desert will become a garden where you’re blooming again and the joy of the Lord will again be your strength.

(Click here if you would like to download the entire week's devotional.)

If you want to be inspired, just google “plants that grow in concrete” and you will see amazing pictures of all kinds of flowers and plants that are able to grow in the most difficult, unlikely places. I was totally mesmerized to see lovely flowers growing out of cracks in a sidewalk, beautiful blooms popping up from a pile of old tires—picture after picture of plants that bloomed in the most unlikely and difficult places.

That’s what I’ve been talking about this week—the challenge each of us faces to make the very best of where we are, blooming where we are planted. The children of Israel were captured and taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, and through the prophet Jeremiah, God told them to bloom right there. You’ll find that story in Jeremiah 29.

But in Psalm 137 we find this sad passage:

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1-4).

Doesn’t sound like they were blooming there in Babylon, does it? Their joy was gone; their song was dead; they had given up because they were in Babylon and not in Jerusalem. Notice that they had the opportunity to sing the songs of Zion, the songs of the Lord. They could have shared the truth about the true God with these pagan people, but their response was, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”

Maybe that’s where you are. You’re in some place that you don’t want to be—maybe you’re just bored or tired or totally unmotivated, so you’ve hung your harp on a poplar tree, so to speak, and quit blooming. I’ve been there; I know how that feels, but I just want to encourage you to remember that there is a beautiful bloom inside of you, planted there by our God, and if you’ll open a little crack and let his sunshine in, you can bloom right there again and his love will shoot up through that crack and you’ll once again bloom where you’re planted.

So, go get that harp you hung up on the poplar tree, and by faith—not necessarily by feelings—ask God to give you a song to sing right where you are, a song from the Lord even while you’re planted in that place you don’t want to be. You can turn your Babylon into a garden full of God’s love, knowing he loves you and sharing his love with everyone around you.

“Bloom where you are planted.” It’s not found in the Bible but it certainly is a biblical attitude. There’s a passage in Jeremiah that is a great example of what it means to “bloom where you are planted.” You’ll find it in Jeremiah 29, and it is a letter that the prophet wrote to the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Get the picture? They are God’s chosen people, now refugees who have been forcibly relocated in Babylon. And here is what Jeremiah wrote to them:

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper’” (Jeremiah 29:4-7). 

Jeremiah didn’t say that they should fight to get back to Jerusalem. He didn’t say they should just get by until God provided a way of escape. He said to make the very best of the situation they were in. This was a foreign culture; there was no temple in Babylon; it was a pagan culture, worshipping many false gods. And yet this is where they found themselves—this is where they were planted.

Notice that God told them that he had carried them into exile, not Nebuchadnezzar. This must have been an amazing statement to them. Their God had brought them to this terrible land? Why would God plant them there? It was hostile to their way of life, to their beliefs, to their God. And yet God made it clear that they were to bloom right there in Babylon where they were planted.

I am reminded that we who are Christ-followers are called foreigners and exiles in this world. Peter writes that we should “live out our time as foreigners here in reverent fear” (1 Peter 1:17b). We are planted here, and while we’re here we should bloom for Jesus. The exiles in Babylon were to build houses, plant gardens, marry, increase in number and seek peace and prosperity for the city of Babylon. They were to bloom in Babylon, of all places.

Are you blooming where you are now planted, or have you allowed the circumstances of life to destroy your will to bloom, to steal your joy? I want to encourage you to know that God can cause you to bloom in ways you’ve never imagined, if you will be willing to bloom right where you are planted.