Hope. A small word, but the weight it carries when we are faced with the circumstances of life is huge. We all need hope whether we admit it or not. It gets each of us through every day, sometimes we just don’t sense or acknowledge the presence of hope, sometimes we can feel like we have lost hope, but the truth is, hope is always there, we just need to take hold of hope.
This blog is dedicated to an amazing new Youth Movement, The Roar Effect. An organisation that has been founded with three main aims that all work together; 1) Building Youth Ministries, 2) Developing Leaders and 3) Seeing teen suicide eliminated! This Friday night we are hosting the first Roar Effect Event at C3 Oxford Falls in Sydney at 5:30pm with free entry, it will be a night of fun for youth from all over the area, but most importantly we will be spreading the message of HOPE!
Anxiety and depression are set to be the most diagnosed conditions by 2020 and right now in every single year 12 class across Australia, someone has considered committing suicide. These are not things that we should hide in the darkness or keep quiet about, these are issues that should be openly discussed and the stigma removed so that we can help people to work through these issues and we can be traffickers of HOPE in their worlds. Enough is enough, too many lives have been lost, too many people live in fear and darkness when their lives should be full of light and joy, let’s draw a line in the sand and all work together to bring an end to these conditions!
Hebrews 6:18-20 says ‘…we who have fled to Him for refuge can take hold of the hope set before us and be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus has entered on our behalf.’
The first key here is to actually flee to Him for refuge. So often we run away from God when the answer is actually to run TO God. We blame God for things that are happening to us and think He’s caused it all, and yet He loves us and wants to carry us through every storm of life. How do we flee to Him for refuge? Talk to Him, He is listening, He loves it when you cry out to Him. Listen to Him, He is speaking and has a wealth of knowledge to help you through. Read from Him, His word the Bible contains everything we need to live this life well, there are keys for life all through it, it is alive and active so get it into you, speak it out loud, meditate on it, read it over and over, memorise it, it will bring health to your body and joy to your life! Be where He is, yes He is everywhere, however He LOVES it when His people gather together and can encourage each other and spend time worshipping Him. There is something so powerful about corporate worship! So many times when we are in a place of despair and anxiety and hopelessness we run away from Church and people, but it is at those times that we need to make sure we are keeping those things in our lives! Even if someone has to come and pick you up every week to get you to a service, get them to do it! Don’t blame “the Church” for what is happening in your life, if you’ve been hurt or disappointed by Church then understand that it’s full of people and those times will come, but it is how each of us responds that ultimately determines how the rest plays out! FLEE TO HIM…HE IS YOUR REFUGE!
We have this hope… What is this hope? This hope is our anchor! Matthew Henry in his commentary on this verse says “It is steadfast to it’s object; it is an anchor that has taken good hold, it enters within the veil, it is an anchor that is cast upon the rock, the Rock of ages. It doesn’t fasten into the sands, but it enters within the veil and fixes there upon Christ; he is the object, he is the anchor-hold of our hope.’
Our hope is a person, our hope is Jesus and He is our anchor! An anchor is designed to hold a ship on course so that when the wind and waves come it doesn’t move too far off track but is held in place. Our lives are often hit by wind and waves, storms can come rolling in from nowhere, which is why it is so vital that we have our lives securely anchored in Jesus Christ! When the storms hit, we might get a little moved or shaken or even tossed about but we won’t stray completely off course because of the anchor that He is. I guess that’s why when the pressures of life do come we can usually see where we are anchored and who or what our foundation is.
Jesus is an anchor for our soul. Our mind, our will and our emotions. When the storms and pressures and worries and anxieties come; hold firm, not through your own strength but with Jesus, HOPE, as your anchor.
Your mind – 2 Corinthians 10:5 says we bring every thought captive to Christ, notice that it says WE bring, WE actually have to do something. God doesn’t just take the thoughts away but WE actually need to choose to stop dwelling on things, make a decision to change our thought patterns, to retrain our brains, like it says in Romans 12:2 to renew our minds every single day through the Word of God, speak it out loud and don’t allow your mind to be negative any more! Stand up with the sword of the Spirit, the Word and start to declare it loud and proud over your life! The enemy has already been defeated!
Your will – Matthew 26:41 says that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, but the first part of that verse says to keep watch and pray so that we won’t fall into temptation (the temptation to be anxious, to worry, to be depressed, to stress etc) because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Once again, there is action involved, we need to keep watch and pray! We need to be keeping an eye on our own free will and on what we are choosing, as well as praying for the spirit to win over the flesh and choosing to live that way.
Your emotions – Proverbs 4:23 in the NLT says Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. We are created as emotional beings, we feel things, it is OK to feel sad or angry or upset or confused, in fact it is not healthy to restrict those emotions, when something full on happens we should allow ourselves the space to cry or yell or do whatever we need to do (within reason) to release those emotions! However, I believe the ‘guarding’ part, which is another action word on our behalf, comes in to make sure that we are not allowing ourselves to camp or to stay in those spaces, we should work THROUGH it which means we come through, we get to the other side of that thing. Sometimes that is a long journey but so long as we actually are in the process of working through those emotions and not allowing ourselves to stay in that space then it is OK.
I am certainly no expert on any of these things, however I absolutely believe that the Bible is true, I also believe and it is being said more and more, that science is finally catching up to the Word of God! Science is starting to declare that we can renew our minds, retrain our thinking, even reshape our brain! Yes life is turbulent, yes life throws major curve balls, yes we can be products of our environment but it is ultimately up to us how the rest of life shapes out. You can’t choose what happens to you but you can choose how you will respond. And you can choose who and what your soul; your mind, your will and your emotions, is anchored to.
Choose to anchor your soul and your life to HOPE, to Jesus, to the fact that He has gone before you, He has paid the price for your healing and for your freedom and for your joy and He is interceding for you, He is your hope, your firm and secure foundation!
Job 11:18-19
You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
and many will look to you for help.
I am so excited about the vision of The Roar Effect; to shine a light and to roar for HOPE.
I roar for you.
Jodes.
www.theroareffect.org
