| As we count the days until Christmas, we all hold hope for what this season will bring. But hope can so easily become expectation. And expectation often leads to disappointment. Because we have a specific idea for how we want our hope to be fulfilled. So the question is, is it possible to hold hope without turning it into expectation? The verse I talk about at in my podcast this week is Isaiah 9:6. It is a verse filled with promise about the coming Messiah. It is also the same verse that caused some Jewish leaders and Pharisees to miss the Messiah who came.They saw “government upon his shoulders” and expected a political leader. When Jesus was born in a barn and never aspired to a political office, they thought he could not possibly be the one Isaiah spoke about. But the government was too small for the power He held. Hope can be expectant, but it needs to remain open. It has to hold the question of how hope will be fulfilled. Expectation causes you to formulate a plan and an outcome. Which causes you to become focused on the way you think that hope will be fulfilled.  Hope doesn’t disappoint you. Expectation does nothing but. And the worst part is, when we think our hope needs to look a certain way, we may miss the way it actually looks. So here’s my prayer for you and me this Christmas- Hang on to hope without letting it deteriorate into expectation. Let this podcast show you how: http://bit.ly/2Q6DFiI |
Hope
