Saturday, March 01, 2008

A Way Out


Sure I am of this; that you only have to endure to conquer. Churchill

I Cor 10:13 assures us that "He will provide a way out." I think our expectations and perspectives are fascinating to study. When we fail to meet our expectations then adversity sets in. For some this adversity is lethal. Psychologists have coined the phrase, “learned helplessness” to explain the feeling of helplessness one feels after lots of failures. If you're someone who just can't seem to measure up, or can't catch a 'break' or keeps falling to temptation then sooner or later you'll probably deal with this learned helplessness idea. That's where your spiritual enemy wants you to be... hopeless.

But there is hope.
And there are options.
And He can provide a way out.

And then you say, "I've already tried. He hasn't come through." Well, then try again. Look, if you’ve only got one bullet then I’d be reluctant to fire it as well. But you don’t. You have lots of them. You just have to keep firing.

I love what Henry Cloud says, "What if your hope is not in one particular option but in the belief that if you keep looking for options one will appear?"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope...it is such a powerful word. Whether we realize it or not, all of our actions are based on it. When we no longer have any hope at all, our actions stop. That is the ultimate danger. The remedy is to keep hope alive and well. A negative mind cannot harness hope.
A positive mind fans the flames of hope. It is this hope that gets a person moving forward. The good news is that hope is highly contagious. Likewise, so is despair. It is therefore critical to surround yourself with like minded individuals and provide encouragement to those who have none. Prayer is the key to keeping hope in forefront of your life.
Being hopeless is being spiritually bankrupt. You cannot help others (or yourself) with that which you don't have. Being hopeful creates an overflow of spiritual cash if you will, that you can easily pass on to anyone. And of course...there can be no hope without love.

Jonathan Foster said...

three remain: faith, hope and love but the greatest is love.

jtc said...

good stuff.

Jonathan Foster said...

thank you.