John D Manwell's Blog

Following the financial crash of 1929 there were many people who lost everything and businesses that collapsed to nothing.  Yet, there were also some who began businesses that later became the biggest and most successful businesses of the century. The inner response to a dramatic change is either hope or hopelessness. Hope produces new life and opportunities, where hopelessness results in death.

We rise to what we are looking at. We need an internal view, which is hopeful.  Hope produces perseverance.  We need to be clear that hope is not a peripheral, secondary or sideline issue. What we hope in, and hope for, is central to who we are and how our society and culture will develop. Hope impacts on our thinking, our goals and our national life. Even our faith will be shaped and develop by the hope that we carry in the core of our being.

Hope is the road that faith walks on.

When our brains are working, the electrical impulses release neurotransmitters, which in turn reinforce the pathway for those electrical connections. Good results produce a positive pathway. In other words ‘proven’ positive experience creates knowledge or certainty that opens up the thinking and ability to imagine, problem solve and deal with challenges. In a physical and practical way, our brains are literally more able to deal with life’s challenges when positive outcomes are envisaged. This is more and more the case as positive thoughts and positive results are repeated. The inverse is true. When negative results or pain occur, the pathways are closed down and minimized. This closes down the mental capacity for fresh thinking or new solutions.

On its own this is a line of thinking that simply reduces hope to nothing more than ‘positive thinking.’ If this was the case, the lottery type of hope would do us good!  The point is that even at a physiological level there is a practical case for having hope and nurturing a positive optimistic expectation.

At a more profound level, a correct understanding of hope as a spiritual truth can do the same for our spirit. Spiritual truth, received into each of our spirits through the written Word of God and the breathed out Spirit of God, trains our spirits in the positive and encouraging revelation of God. Our spirits become stimulated and informed. We develop and learn to have greater confidence in the resources and government of God in our lives. Our spiritual resources are increased and widened so that we are more able to deal with spiritual challenges and more effectively arrive at solutions provided by God. The opposite is true when we dull our spirits with lies from the world and the realm of darkness. Our capacity to face difficulties and defeat satanic opposition becomes ever diminishing.  For these reasons we must renew our minds and not think as the world does. Training our spirits with God’s Word and His thoughts will develop spiritual hope and inner resources. As we gain awareness of the hope to which we are called and the glory that lies ahead, we become confident in God and sure of the road that we are on.

Knowing God’s plan for what is to come is very reassuring. It is a stronghold against all the invasions of the world and satan. We need to know what God has ordained for all humanity and every believer. We also need to know His specific plan and purpose for every one of us. Each one of us needs to be clear of His call and intention for our individual life. Knowing this and looking forward with a certain hope changes the way we will respond to the events that spring up.

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This post is a part re-publishing of the chapter written by John D Manwell: “Hope that makes a real difference” which was first published in the book “HOPE – when everything seems hopeless” by Thomas P. Dooley, Mall Publishing Co. ISBN 1-934165-20-4

(C) Thomas P. Dooley 2008.  Used with permission

Tags: atheism, Bible, collapse, confidence, creativity, dream, expectation, future, godless, Hope, hope for the best, Hope Street, hopeless, Jesus Christ, Kairos, life's lottery, liverpool, luck, opportunity, stock market, trust, truth, vision

This entry was posted on May 20, 2016 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Christian Truth, Social Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.