Wasting Days on Hope of the Future

What a title huh? How can you ever waste anything with hope? I have been in a difficult season lately. There are things about my life I don't like, things I wish would hurry and change, things I wish were different. I keep looking forward, hoping for the next season to begin. Recently, I have realized that I might be wasting today, hoping for tomorrow.

Hope is a powerful principle. The Bible tells us that 'hope deferred makes the heart sick'. Without hope, we are lost. When you look into the eyes of an impoverished, orphan child, you can see what a lack of hope and a future can do. Their eyes are empty, hollow, and dead. Hope is what keeps us moving when we've lost a loved one. We know of the eternal hope, the promised hope of heaven. The very sacrifice of Jesus is what brought the world hope. It is a lifter of heads, breath to the spirit, burden-bearing. Hope truly keeps us alive.

So how in world could it be true that I am wasting my days on hope? This is what I believe God spoke to my heart lately.

Today is the day of salvation, the Word tells us. If I spend all my energy and thoughts on hoping for the future, always waiting for that change I am hoping for, despising the season I'm in and living on what might be in the future, I am wasting this day. Hope is not only for the future. Hope is for today. No matter what the season of life I am in, whether in the valley or on the mountaintop, or in that very difficult place of transition between the two, there is a purpose for every step. God wants us to live everyday with our eyes wide open, enjoying the journey He has us on, submitting to the refinement He is walking us through, and living on purpose every single day.

There are changes I am waiting for in my life; some of them out of my control and some I can do something about. If I live today completely focused on what I am hoping will be different in the future or an answer I am longing for on tomorrows journey, I will lose today. Perhaps Jesus will return before that change or answer arrives. Will I spend my last days unhappy, discontented, and ineffective because I am living on the hope of that change?

Hope is a powerful principle. Without it, we will not survive this troubled world we live in. However, I believe the questions God has for me today is: What hope will you live in for today? What hope will you offer someone else today? Will you stop wasting days paralyzed by future hope and live continually in hope?