There are two very different types of hope in this world. One is hoping for something, and the other is hoping in someone.
Eventually everything we hope for will disappoint us. Every circumstance, every situation that we’re hoping for is going to wear out, fall apart, melt down, and go away. When that happens, the question then is about your deeper hope, your foundational hope, your fallback hope when all your other hopes have disappointed.
All of Scripture points to one man, one God, not because he gives us everything we’re hoping for but because he is the One we put our hope in.
For the past year I’ve been working on a new book that I just released called Let Hope In. I knew from the beginning this book would fall short of helping people find life-changing transformation if all we do is identify the problems, challenges, and painful moments of your past. Identifying these memories from your past alone doesn’t help you. If all you do is remember the source of your pain, then something has gone horribly wrong. Why drudge up the past if you can’t find healing from the pain?
And for there to be real healing, for your past to really become your past, what needs to happen here is that you discover or discern the lie that your memory contains. This is fundamental to your healing.
It is important to understand that your past is not really the problem. The real problem is the lie you believed when an event happened in your past.
The truth is that memories don’t hurt us. It is what we believe about those memories that hurt us.
Trusting in the loving care of God regardless of what has happened in my past has been an ongoing process in my journey. And it’s only when we trust his loving care that we’re able to really begin to allow the hope of Christ to shine through us. Yes, hurt people do hurt people. But what’s equally true is that free people free people. And becoming free starts with being able to fully trust the loving care of God despite what we’ve possibly been through in our past.
About Pete
Pete Wilson is the founding and senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee, a committed church community that he and his wife, Brandi, planted in 2003. Over the course of 11 years, Cross Point has grown to reach more than 5,000 people each weekend through its four campuses located around the Nashville area, and online.
Pete is also an avid blogger (www.PeteWilson.tv); he enjoys the outdoors and Titans football. When he’s looking for rest, you can often find Pete working in his garden, hanging out with his wife, Brandi, or playing outside with their three boys.
Want to read Pete’s book?
Enter using the widget below! Pete is giving away a copy of Let Hope In to one lucky reader! Only those in the U.S. are eligible to win.
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