CWW Week 17 - Day 7 - Hope

Scripture.

Romans 15:13 in the New King James Version (NKJV) reads:

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

This verse emphasises the role of God as a source of hope, joy, and peace, and it highlights the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in sustaining and increasing our hope.What a wonderful verse to tie up our week long deliberations on hope. If ever a world needed an abundance of hope it is this one. We have been subjected to a relentless barrage of fear for too long. 

Have you ever heard anyone say that if they had a dollar for everything they worried about that never happened they would be a millionaire? I have been saying this for years because after seventy one years of doing life I have seen this played out in my own existence.

So why worry? Worry is a useful mechanism in the same vein as pain, shame and guilt. They are all a part of Gods warning system. Pain tells us that we are damaging our body and shame and guilt warns us that we are damaging our soul and searing our conscience. Worry is the radar that alerts us to pending peril.

Thankfully we have many false alarms. I read once that most smoke and fire alarms are sounded due to a system glitch rather than as a result of an actual fire. When the smoke alarm goes off in my home I obviously investigate and realise it was a false alarm and go back to bed.

The problem we encounter comes in an over heightened sense of worry and alarm that destroys our quality of life. The fear of flying is just such an issue. When I was flying as a career, I was often involved in fear of flying programs. The airline would identify regular passengers who formed a part of what we called the white knuckle brigade.  The program often involved rides in the simulator, lectures on the principles of flight and even rides on the flight deck when ever these passengers travelled.

The aim of the program was to demonstrate how safe the system was because of system redundancy planning and excellent training and maintenance.

I loved guiding people through their fear. When they realised how it all comes together and how calm and relaxed the pilots were and how well trained, you could see a calmness come over them. They knew that who was in control had their best interests at heart and that they were more than capable. They reached a stage where the fear left them and was replaced with respect. In that they were free.

Imagine a fear of flying type anxiety transferred into a fear of life anxiety. Well that has all but become the norm now as we, through the influence of an over active media that thrive on fear mongering and controversy to generate ratings and income, are driven to an aversion to normal risk and an addiction to safety. Look at all the limits placed on our lives in a mass hysteria around avoiding risk. It is actually causing a plague of mental health issues. Our entire lives are predicated on safety. Look at how often you are told to be safe! Isn’t normal risk aversion innate in all of us? Do we have to be told how to do everything?

As a crop dusting pilot I was taught to fly underneath power lines. I was taught never to look up at them as I flew underneath as I would, in so doing, fly into them. So I always made sure that I could fit under everyone of them and then concentrated on flying as low as possible forgetting that they were there. Once I knew I could squeeze under them then my focus was on staying low. I respected the wires but had faith in my low flying skills.

We also develop our risk strategies by being exposed to risk. I watched our dog sniff the glass in front of our roaring wood fired heater. I knew he was going to burn his nose and I also knew he had to to learn the lesson. He did. He yelped and reeled back from the fire. He learned to respect fire that day and knew how to avoid it. He never went back to that glass.

Life anxiety has a remedy and that remedy is Jesus Christ. Hope generated by faith in the Creator God is an effective anti depressant. Jesus showed us what perfect love is capable of. Lets look at scripture yet again to back up this claim as we read in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

In faith through Jesus Christ we can be assured that there are no false alarms. Our warning systems are properly maintained and function perfectly. In faith we can assuredly know that there is a standard operating procedure laid out to deal with any of life’s emergencies. In perfect love we have no enemy that can harm us. In the full armour of God we can walk through any of life’s battles. With Jesus as our rudder we can navigate any storm and with the Holy Spirit as our controller, we can fly through the mountains in the darkness with confidence knowing that He is the ever reliable radar to spotlight the traps that lay ahead.

In 2006 I was planning to take my own life. It came terrifyingly close. I had no God, no faith and therefore no hope. At the eleventh hour the God I had mocked and denied all of my life materialised and pulled me back. I have never looked back from that day. In 2006 I came close to the glass door and I sniffed the hot glass. I burned my nose, and in shock at the realisation of what I was about to do, I reeled back and handed my life to God.

My dog now respects the fire. I now respect God. He has the power to allow me to be destroyed or save me. His decision to do either is based on my chaise to accept or deny Him.  My reverence for Him and love of Him clearly shows me that there is no risk in hope through faith. I pray now for a hope that will survive even if my prayers for deliverance are not answered. In this faith regardless of the outcomes, even the fear of death has departed me. Sure I will always take sensible measures to avoid risk but I am not afraid. Why should I be? How can I be the best version of me if I live in fear? How can God bless anything I do if, in fear I do nothing in order to avoid risk.

If I try and fail, then I learn a lesson and gain wisdom. If I try and win, then that’s because Gods own purpose has been fulfilled through my actions and He blessed it. Therefore all glory goes to Him and I am just along for the ride.

I can face life now with a sense of serenity. When I hit a pothole and fall I say what my wife Michelle says when it happens to her. “oh well, You get that.”

Why worry?  Hope springs eternal through faith in Christ Jesus.

Questions.

1. How much energy have you spent worrying about things that never happened?
2. Are you addicted to The Daily News?
3. If God is waiting for you to trust in Him; what would it take for you to start that process today?

Prayer.

Dear Lord, Papa God.

Today I have decided to hand it all over to you in sweet surrender. I am tired of carrying the burden of worry because I have no trust, no faith. Thank you so much Papa for instilling in me the faith to look to You for all my solutions.  Thank you for allowing me to sniff the glass knowing that the burning pain of my experience would teach me to avoid the danger zones. Lord I ask that you continue to be my radar and that my faith will enable me to enjoy the view on my journey instead of looking for danger in my life. I hand all of my anxiety over to you Papa God in Jesus holy name I pray. Amen.

Enjoy your day with Jesus.

Graham Hood.