This is the Promises of God Podcast and I’m your host, Tracie Rollins. This podcast is about you, your ability to hear and believe and take action on God’s promises in your life because all of God’s promises are yes and amen. Resources mentioned in today’s episode can be found on PromisesofGodPodcast.com. Now, let’s get started.
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 12. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope in both the good times and the bad, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com. You can learn more about Bible journaling and take the free 10-day Bible journaling course there. Today, we’re focused on securing hope every single day, and our verse is Matthew 12:21. It reads, “In his name, the nations will put their hope.” Matthew is sharing a fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah 42, that Jesus is the chosen one who will proclaim justice not just to the Israelites, but to all the nations. It is in him that we have hope. What does it mean to have hope Hope is an expectation or desire for some event or thing to happen. It’s not a wish. It’s not wondering as it relates to God. It’s an expectation that God will deliver on his promises which extend beyond death into eternal life in the presence of our Lord.
Most of us experienced moments of disarray in our lives. Sometimes we lose hope that things will ever change. Sure. When life is going smoothly, it’s easy to feel hopeful, but what do you do when trouble enters your life, and you feel like God isn’t hearing your prayers Here are 14 different ways that I’ve used in my life to find hope in God in any situation. The first one is to pray for hope. Life is so full of hardships, but that doesn’t mean you should give in to fear. Find Hope in God through prayer. Philippians chapter four verses six through seven say, and nothing, be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. The second thing I do is I read the Bible.
Everything you need is in the Bible. Read the Bible daily. I do. It’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning before I even jump out of bed, I grabbed my phone. I get open the you version, Bible APP, which is the one I use almost every day, and I read the Bible there, read the Bible daily, especially when you feel like you’re giving into feelings of hopelessness. Romans 15:4 reads, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that through patience and encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. Reading the Bible will help you thrive and it’s perfect, but to read in times of need.
The third thing I do is listen and sing. Worship songs listened attentively to work at worship songs and let the sad feelings melt away. They will be replaced by heartfelt praise and gratitude for God. Singing along with music creates a closer connection to the Lord as well. It creates a profound sense of wellbeing. I love to listen to worship songs. It this one. Number three is what got me through all of the weeks that my son was in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. It was the. One of the only things that just helped me through that time was I would get in the car or turn on, I think it was Kayla is the one I was listening to, and I would listen to that on the way to the hospital. A lot of times I’d be crying.
Then on the way home, it would lift myself spirits as well, so I encourage you to do that, especially when you’re feeling hopeless. Nis, as I did during that very dark season in my life, and that’s for a whole other podcast episode. The fourth thing that I turned to his Bible journaling. I just grab your Bible and read a verse and doodle about that verse in Your Bible. You will be amazed at how much it. It only helps you understand the word and really as you pause and reflect on scripture, how much it helps you to feel the love of God that has that. The love of God that he has for you and how encouraged you’ll be. Most people that I talked to that Bible Journal find just joy and peace in it. That is like the biggest thing that they say whenever their Bible journaling.
They have this sense of peace, and I think that if you’ve ever had you ever get a chance to watch one of my videos were on Bible journaling with, with, with you. You’ll notice that I start the videos, very excited, but by the time we get to the end of the videos, I’m pretty mellow and that’s just what it does. Bible journaling helps me find peace and relax for the beautiful way to grow in the word creatively. And the fifth thing that you can consider doing is joining a Bible study, and I think by joining a Bible study often, not only do you get the growth in the word, but you are usually surrounded by very beautiful people that care you and your growth so in your life. Absolutely. A lot of when I was in Bible studies as a young mother, I know that my mom’s group would always make sure that if, if one of us, one of us moms were going to have surgery or having a difficult time or there was something going on in our lives, we would be praying for them, we’d be bringing them meals.
We just rallied around each other. And so finding that kind of support is fantastic. Another thing you can do, and this is number six, is to journal your requests. So journal The Times when you’ve turned to the Lord for help in the note when he answers your request, actually write down your requests, um, as they relate to things that he’s promised and then go back later when he’s answered them, and some things will be answered right away, and some things will be, you know, years and years in the making and then you just come back and re-write that down when it’s, when it’s been answered. I think that when you look back on your list, when you, especially when you lost confidence that he will come through on his promises. I think it will quickly change your attitude. It’s a great indication of his love for you and that you can see in your life where things, maybe you’ve been struggling, or they were difficult times in your life or even the great times in your life to review those as well.
All of that. Taking the time to just see the requests, see the prayer, see the promise that you’re waiting on being fulfilled, and then it actually being fulfilled. I think if you look back in your life, especially if you have this done or if you haven’t done this and you might even just create a list right now of all the times that he has been there for you and has provided for you. The second thing is to read encouraging stories and turn the news off. I think sometimes the news can really damper are our hope. I think that sometimes it can be extremely negative. I had a friend who was really spiraling into negativity because she was just surrounding herself all the time with news and, um, I just kind of sent her a message and was like, Hey, you know, I haven’t seen you do much of your art lately, would you, you know, here’s something that I found that might be interesting to you.
And she texts me back not only 10 minutes after I sent that message, that what a great idea to get away from the news and to be in her art, praising God for the wonderful skill that he gave her. And she snapped out of it pretty quickly, but she had been depressed and in a state of hopelessness for a few weeks. By that time I had a Holy Spirit call upon my heart to reach out to her. So definitely, um, uh, turn the news off, read encouraging stories. I think that you know, if you can grab a book of devotionals or even a Bible that has devotionals in it, I’m also encouraging stories in the Bible are amazing to read. Those things will help you have hope. The eighth one is to minister to someone in need. If you’ve lost confidence ministering to others in their time of need doesn’t only help them, a lot of times you’ll find it helps you.
You can volunteer at your woman’s shelter. Uh, you can provide random active acts of kindness, like maybe you buy the cup of coffee for the person behind you. And I even heard of this thing the other day that someone did where they, um, bought a gift card for their birthday, scanned it on their phone, and then posted it on social media so that people could get a coffee at Starbucks and tool. I think it was $50 and then it was gone. But what an amazing thing to do for peoples to give them something, you know, minister to them in their needs. And yeah, I mean, something like the Starbucks thing. Maybe you don’t think that that is ministering to anyone in their need. But she said when she posted, that she received a note from a woman, who actually had just the worst day and had absolutely no money and pray to God that she could just, you know, if it would just be nice, just if she could just have a cup of coffee, is what she prayed for and literally got delivered it to her.
It was just amazing. I love these kinds of stories. I get a gig out of him. So minister knew someone in need doesn’t necessarily mean you know who you’re ministering to. The person behind you in the drive through that you bought their meal. It could be that they’re down on their luck too. It could be, or it’s a friend that’s going through cancer that you stopped by to say hi because you miss her, any lover and she just. You tell her how much you care about her. You don’t even have to bring her a meal although I would highly recommend it, because she probably is exhausted from the treatments numbered nine. Read a devotional. I think I’m one of the easiest ways to find hope and God is to read a devotional. I mentioned that earlier, so I’ll keep going.
Number 10, talk to someone you love. I think when you’re feeling down or lost or hopeless, it’s always good to reach out to those that you love and that surrounds you and your community. It can be a friend, a family member, your pastor, just talking to people sometimes helps you see things from a different perspective. Don’t just call someone to vent on them and not be willing to listen to their counsel. Sometimes it’s easy for us to pick up the phone and you know, dump all of our worries onto somebody and all of our hopelessness onto somebody and then when they try to help us, we give them but this and nope, we can’t do that, or it’s not going to work. All the negative things that they’re just trying to help you and give us, you know, give a little encouragement, a little advice.
So stop and listen to it and consider it at a minimum. Just listen and consider it. And I’m the 11th one is to get involved in your church or your local community. I think getting involved in your church is so important and, um, they really hope you have a sense of belonging to your community. Number 12, consider all of the good things in your life. Take a minute to write on, in your gratitude journal. Get your gratitude journal out right now. Press pause on this and start writing all the great things in your life because now you’ll have a, a second, um, anytime that you think that your life is not that awesome, you’ll be able to look back and see all the things that you genuinely have that are amazing. Number 13, spend some time in God’s creation. I’m in nature specifically.
It really does. So yeah. Spend some time in God’s creations. You’ll notice things differently. You’ll see things that you didn’t see before and you’ll be pretty thankful. I think by the time you get back, you’ll definitely feel a little less hopeless in a lot more hopeful, and the last one is to be patient. God knows what you need and sometimes the things that you believe he supposed to give you, either he’s not going to give you because it wouldn’t be good for you or for other reasons. It wouldn’t be good for maybe someone else or he’s going to give them to you, but just not today, so be patient and wait on him and his history shows that he always feels as fulfills his promises so you can be confident that he will fulfill his promises to you. This week. Pick one or two of these 14 ways to find hope in God and apply them when you’re searching for hope.
If you have more to share, head over to the promises of God podcast.com and let others know in the comments. It’s in times like these that hope is so important, and if you don’t yet have hope in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. If you know the love of God in your life, but you’ve strayed from the path, come back, you know he will accept you with open, loving arms. You have to come back. You’re not promised tomorrow. Time is short. Don’t put it off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the Promises of God Podcast. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the Promises of God Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at the PromisesofGodPodcast.com.
