Most of us have had the experience of using a GPS app of some kind while driving to guide us to a destination. We know that when we take a wrong term we will here that sweet voice say “rerouting.” For someone like me who often fails to pay attention those words are beautiful music to my ear.
People of hope hear that same kind of thing in their heart when they mess up or when life deals them an unexpected blow. When they come to those disappointing places they see stop signs not dead ends. They know that things have gotten off track and they need to stop and change directions, but they never give up hope that they are going to that place of “seeing the goodness of God in the land of the living.” The narrative of their life is defined by promises not problems.
They don’t let the enemy get them to stop and get stuck in the quicksand of blame, unforgiveness, guilt, or regret. They refuse to allow the narrative of their life to be defined by something that has happened to them. They know what God knows. He says in Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, not to harm you but to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future.” They believe that old saying, “You can’t change the past my friend but you can begin today to make a whole new end.”
The fact is that there is only one true dead end and that is death. All of the other “dead ends” people those people accept but they really didn’t have to. Where there is life there is hope. There is always another choice that they can make. They are people who know that if you get to the airport late you are not sentenced to live the rest of your life in an airport. There is another plane coming that you can take.
People of hope start with a belief that says, “I am an overcomer who is on my way to victory and success.” I may be in the valley of the shadow of death but that is simply a place I’m going through not a place I’m destined to. God says, He works all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So if it isn’t good, God isn’t finished working yet. There is another chapter in this story. Joseph was a man who had to have a major reroute in his life. His brothers sold him into slavery. But he just kept looking for the next “God choice” he could make. He ended up as prime minister of Egypt and the deliverer of his nation. Joseph was able to reroute his life not by waiting for a good circumstance to find him but by looking and claiming promise from God to remind him not to give up. He choose to believe that what his brothers meant for evil God meant for good.
What I’ve learned about life is that no matter what situation I’m in if I keep obeying, growing, and sowing seeds that help others I will end up victorious in the end zone of life. That’s just the way it works. Please don’t fall into the trap of turning stop signs into dead ends. Whether it is a divorce, an addiction, bankruptcy, the loss of your dream, God Almighty says you have a hope and a future. Announce that as the end of your story and listen to the voice of the ultimate GPS system (the guidance of the Holy Spirit) as He reroutes you to that new place of hope!
Dale
To watch a short video on the subject, please go to: shorturl.at/mryG8