My dad always had this view of life around him, “Expect the worse, but hope for the best.”

I questioned him and mom about it more than once, and yet, he always said that he wouldn’t be disappointed then, if something bad came along, because he had expected it.

And yet, good things do come, even as we might “expect” good things to happen. We are told that all good things come to him that waits, and also that everyone in this life can expect difficulties to come.

“That ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust,” Matthew 5:45.

But oh, to always think that the worst thing that could happen would happen. Actually, those that always think this way either live in fear, or have such a deep pessimism about life, that I wonder if they can experience true joy or happiness.

“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me,” Job 3:25.

There are those that always seem to see the sunshine around them. Everything always seems to be rosy and happy to them. It makes me wonder if they were born with rose-colored glasses on, even at birth. The real issue here I believe, is that we aren’t blind to the problems that occur in our lives every day, but that we still have hope; for as we know, “hope will never disappoint us.”

“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us,” Romans 5:5.

But we shouldn’t have blind hope either. Only a fool would get up every morning simply “hoping” that everything around them will be fine, when they’ve chosen to not repair a leaky roof, a flat tire, or a broken wrist.

God gives wisdom to those who ask of it. Wisdom is not something that chooses to ignore the problems, and evil around us, but it finds a way to see these things as they are, and to set priorities in one’s life.

Wisdom realizes that we aren’t an end to ourselves, and that only God himself has the answers for the many questions and issues that we have in this life. To fear God, is the beginning of wisdom,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.“ Proverbs 9:10.

We want to experience the fulfillment of the hope that we have set our eyes upon. We don’t want to “hope” for something, and then later on, find out that the outcome wasn’t what we had expected.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life,” Proverbs 13:12.

And then when our desires are fulfilled in the things that we have hoped for, our faith is renewed, and strengthened.

But just because our desires haven’t been fulfilled in what we have hoped for, doesn’t mean that the answer will not come. Perhaps we hoped in something that was not good for us.

And then when the fulfillment finally does come, we realize that “God’s ways are not our ways, neither our His thoughts our thoughts.”

 

Selah,
~ Stephen Hanson

---

Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the LORD is a special way in 1975 and has prophesied regularly since. In these end-time birthing pangs we are reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God. Will we be prepared and ready?

Back to Top