Six months ago, my husband and I went riding through an upscale neighborhood in my hometown. We came upon a house that was newly built and in the final stages of completion. As we marveled at this huge, magnificent home, we were imagining what it looked like inside and dreaming of what it would be like to live in such a place. As we were about to pass back by the home to leave the neighborhood, we noticed a lady pulling into the driveway and getting out of the car. I had already made up in my mind to ask her if I could look at her house. It was a bold move that I would never have dreamed of making, but I felt very strongly that I should ask. To my delight, she invited us in before I could even form the words to ask her. The home was like something you see in fairytale. But the thing that really got me was the fact that the owners of the home had the exact same occupations as my husband and myself.
"What in the world just happened"?!!!, I asked God when we returned to the car to leave. God responded, "You have been exposed. Exposure is what I show you that is possible for you. Discipline is the key to get what I have shown you". The most important element to your faith is your works. James 2:17 lets us know that faith without works is dead. It sounds so simple in theory, but what derails so many of us is that we fail to understand that the work we must do is not always easy and will require discipline. No matter how challenging it will be to get the things we hope for, you must discipline yourself to put in the work. God has been known to throw in a favor or two along the way, but the work must be done by you. If there is not enough discipline to actually make the moves, the hope you have quickly becomes a mere wish. Failing to move costs as you have now reduced your hope (what you believe is possible based off what God has shown you) down to a wish (a desire which is left to happenstance and chance that is never acted upon).
Hope usually either pushes some action or is the result of action that is already in progress. Meaning you have imagined something that you are hoping to have, so it causes you to go do the things necessary to have it. Or, you have already done the work and waiting for the things you hoped for to come to pass. Either way, productive action is involved. And if there is something that can't humanly be done by us, we pray for God to move on our behalf. Both hoping and wishing are desires. The difference is that hope invokes behaviors that get results while wishing is only thinking about it as if it is an unattainable pipe dream. Wishing is sometimes torture because you don't have the belief you need to possess it. Wishing means you have no real hope for the thing which equates to being stuck with the notion that it will most likely never happen for you. How miserable it is to see something you want every day but have no belief that it can happen. What good things has God allowed you to be exposed to that causes you imagine? If you have exposure to new and better things (within righteousness), God wants you to have them. We do not serve a God who dangles a carrot over our heads and plays with our emotions by not giving us access to having it. God does not show us promises for the sole purpose of teasing us and refusing us access. He has given us faith to live our dreams, but the faith is null and void without works.
Here are a few things to ponder regarding the desires of your heart:
Hope Wishes
You have a written plan You get jealous of the lives of others
You have a checklist of things to work on You spend countless hours on phone and TV
You see some progress towards goals You are irritated throughout the day
If you are doing more wishing than hoping, it is time for you to turn your wishes into written dreams and then turn your dreams into actionable goals. Take those goals and write down some step-by-step actions. There is no way you should go into the next year wasting days watching someone else live a life that you could have for yourself. We all have the same God and the same 24 hours in a day.
Being able to tour that new home we stumbled upon was unusual. However, seeing beautiful homes was not uncommon for us. I have been attending home shows for years, so I am no stranger to luxury homes. But meeting the owners and learning that their occupations were the exact same as ours was God's way of letting me know that He actually wants us to have it. I left that home knowing that I could have it. How to get there is not yet known. But I do know is that sitting and doing absolutely nothing but thinking about it means I will never get there. I challenge you not to sit and wish for things you want day after day without utilizing the hours within to work towards them. That is what we now know is just wishing. Rather, let us make a plan and move into action which causes us to hope. Hope positions us to exercise our faith. Wishing positions us to exercise our misery.
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