{"id":618,"date":"2018-09-14T03:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T03:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=618"},"modified":"2018-09-14T12:27:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T12:27:39","slug":"hope-practically-changes-life-10-steps-freedom-week-1-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2018\/09\/hope-practically-changes-life-10-steps-freedom-week-1-day-5.html","title":{"rendered":"How Hope Practically Changes Your Life (10 Steps to Freedom Week 1 Day 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unsplash-logoBrittany
Brittany Martin<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following is a devotion from my message series\u00a010 Steps to Freedom<\/a>. I hope these devotionals help you experience lasting freedom in Jesus!<\/span><\/p>\n

STEP ONE: day 5<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fill your soul with the\u00a0<\/i>hope<\/i><\/b>\u00a0of Jesus<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019re a baseball player and you\u2019re about to bat. It\u2019s the bottom of the ninth, two outs, the bases are loaded and you\u2019re down by a few runs. The pressure is all on you. How successful do you think you\u2019re going to be in your at-bat if you walk into the batter\u2019s box repeating to yourself, \u201cI\u2019m going to strike out! I\u2019m going to strike out!<\/i>\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s say you\u2019re in a marriage that has seen better days. You\u2019re still trying to make it work but you\u2019re struggling. How successful do you think you\u2019ll be if you wake up every morning saying, \u201cMy marriage is going to fail. My marriage is going to fail<\/i>.\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Freedom is no different. If you constantly say to yourself, \u201cI\u2019ll never be free. I\u2019ll always be addicted. I can\u2019t beat this<\/i>.\u201d, don\u2019t be surprised when you stay in chains. Filling your soul with the hope of Jesus means speaking to yourself, \u201cI am free because Jesus sets me free. I can overcome this because of the power of Jesus living inside of me.<\/i>\u201d (Try saying that last statement out loud). The first step to freedom is hope because until you believe that you can be free, you\u2019ll never experience freedom. The beauty and power of the death and resurrection of Jesus is that our hope to change isn\u2019t wishful thinking, it is reality. When Jesus conquered death and the grave he overcame the power of darkness, and His presence inside you through the Holy Spirit now gives you that same power to overcome the darkness within you. Do not despair! Through Jesus you can be free! Let that hope fill your soul and light the path through the next nine steps to freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Describe an experience where your attitude had a negative effect on your life. Do you tend to be more optimistic (hopeful) or pessimistic (despairing)?<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Instead of praying to God to set you free, how would it change your perspective (and begin to fill you with hope) if you started to\u00a0thank<\/i>\u00a0God that He has already set you free through Jesus?<\/span><\/p>\n

You can read other devotional entries\u00a0for 10 Steps to Freedom\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a devotion from my message series\u00a010 Steps to Freedom. I hope these devotionals help you experience lasting freedom in Jesus! STEP ONE: day 5 Fill your soul with the\u00a0hope\u00a0of Jesus Let\u2019s say you\u2019re a baseball player and you\u2019re about to bat. It\u2019s the bottom of the ninth, two outs, the bases are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[318,34,99],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-steps-to-freedom","tag-freedom","tag-hope","tag-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Hope Practically Changes Your Life (10 Steps to Freedom Week 1 Day 5) - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you woke up every morning saying "my marriage is going to fail", how successful do you think your marriage would be?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2018\/09\/hope-practically-changes-life-10-steps-freedom-week-1-day-5.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Hope Practically Changes Your Life (10 Steps to Freedom Week 1 Day 5) - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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