May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
“The first step that will motivate you to do what is necessary is to see that what you are doing has no hope of getting what you want. When that happens, you will instantly feel an epiphany. Y ou realize that to get where you want to get,
you must make a change. You really get it that to continue to do what you are doing is hopeless, and then you will begin to see motivation to make a change appear. So hopelessness can bring us closer to fearlessness, as it does not take courage to stop doing what you know is not going to work.
When you see a train coming, you have fear working for you, motivating you to get out of the way. It just takes a clear dose of the reality, over and over, to confirm that you are going nowhere. It creates its own discomfort, which motivates us to action. It is sometimes the most important step you can take, as it will fuel you to make a move. But remember, to get there, you have to get honest with yourself and be ready to see hopelessness as if it is staring you in the face.”
Henry Cloud in Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2011) 68.
What do hope and hopelessness have to do with generosity? Everything.
God wants us to abound in hope. We do that when we trust Him completely with everything. When we daily say “Jesus I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!” We abound with hope.
And yet, in the midst of our days, we will feel a sense of hopelessness. Why?
It’s a gift actually. It’s a voice from heaven saying what you are doing is not working. Stop it. Take another path. You are standing on the railroad tracks and the train is coming. Get off. Make a change.
This book is helping me see areas in my life that need pruning or where I need to make changes to be the person God wants me to be.