February Fruits: Hope

Author's Character Series
February Fruits: Hope
Net's Notation Tuesdays

Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope.
Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.
(Zech. 9:12, NKJV)

Following last week’s topic of faith, today we’ll zero in on hope. They're very closely related.

I’m a prisoner of hope. Not only in my writing life, but in my personal life. There are promises I’m waiting on God to fulfill. And I can’t let them die. I can’t ignore them, deny them, stuff them under the rug. Instead, I wait on God, trying not to quench His Holy Spirit (see 1 Thess. 5:19). In this way, hope holds me prisoner.

Are there promises you’re waiting on God to fulfill in your life? Are you hoping in God for a breakthrough in a certain area?

Here’s how I think hope grows in us. We hope for a breakthrough in God. He grants it. We praise Him and risk hoping for something greater. Our faith is stretched in the meantime. Eventually we see that second “item” or “event” happen. But what if we have to wait?

Waiting is hope’s meadow.

It’s in the waiting that we find peace when we hope in God.

Waiting requires hope.

Hope is a fruit of the Spirit. God calls us to hope.

And because we can’t let go of whatever it is God’s promised us, or we’ve asked from Him, we become prisoners of hope.

But look at that first verse above: the prisoners of hope are promised a double restoration.

Hope is a choice and a fruit. You’ll find hope where it was forced through the soil by a season of waiting. You’ll find hope where a blessing long promised manifests.

In the mature author’s character, God will find hope.

Are there areas where you need to risk having hope? Don’t worry, hope will not disappoint.

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.
(Romans 15:13, NKJV)