Imagine yourself waking up every morning with a sense of excitement and hopeful expectancy of overcoming each obstacle no matter how small or big it is. You are a winner, a champion, an optimist; effective and efficient in all you do each day. You see all setbacks as temporary and you are calm and relaxed in potentially stressful situations.
Our free will, in combination with our ability to think and speak, is a powerful force that can serve in moving us forward or setting us back when faced with the unexpected, or even during our so called ‘normal’ days.
Since we have now entered into this brand new year - 2019 - some of us may feel paralyzed with fear of the unknown, or stuck and unable to move forward. We may feel more fearful about the future as we listen to the news, and less hopeful about the promises made to us by God and others.
Lou Tice, the late co-founder of The Pacific Institute in Seattle, WA, wrote in Personal Coaching for Results, “Less Fear, More Hope. Just four little four-letter words, but when they are vividly felt as emotion, they are behavior-changing, life-changing, world-changing. No wonder that the hope or fear we experience in our hearts and minds, changes our body chemistry. No wonder that patients who feel hopeless recover more slowly and die sooner…”
Simply put, the conclusion from the author’s research is that a change in expectation and belief changes the result with either less fear or more hope.
The word believe is used on many occasions throughout the Bible in reference to our trust and hope in God. On one occasion in Matthew 9:27-34, Jesus asked two blind men wanting to be healed, “Do you believe I can do this?” I love what happens next. Upon their quick reply, “Yes, we believe,” Jesus touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe!” What a powerful statement! One change of expectation, one change of a belief, brings forth a new life, a miracle, and a new hopeful future.
Ask yourself today, who is altering your belief and how? How would a shift in your focus on Christ and His greatness influence your day? It’s time to get unstuck by willfully changing our expectations and beliefs as we focus on MORE HOPE found in Christ and LESS FEAR of the unknown.