You're Gonna Make ItExemple

## THRIVING IN SEASONS Do you know what I hate? Stress. I’m pretty sure you do, too. Our lives are filled with stress because our lives are messy. We can define stress in so many ways. But what is stress? Stress is the body’s response to uncertainty. There is so much uncertainty in everything. The American Institute of Stress runs a website that continually posts data and studies on stress levels in America. The statistics are sobering - we are all stressed to the max. What’s even harder is realizing every statistic is a person like you and me. Actual living, breathing people with hopes, dreams, doubts, and fears. When I look at my life, I see a lot of stress in different places. Stress about my family, my health, my church family, and the economy. I could go on. I bet you have a lot of your unique anxieties as well. In these times in our life, Jesus invites us to put on the mindset of hope. The mind of Christ chooses to trust God in life’s uncertainties. So, I want to give you a cheat code to get there. I love to define hope as an acronym. Hope = Having Only Positive Expectations. Now where we put our hope is key here. We don’t hope in hope. Hope has a name, and its name is Jesus. Hope is a type of superpower. It helps us look beyond the stress and into the secure hands of God. It’s that mindset of hope that fuels our resilience. Sure, we experience the stresses of life, but we put our hope in Jesus because we know that God is working. Our stress is the path for the Spirit of God to encourage us to continue. If we never struggled, we would never lean on Jesus. Ultimately, Jesus brings beauty out of what was stressful. When our hope-filled mindset is coupled with a consistent determination to see things through to where God designed them to go, what I call a lifestyle of grit, we see Jesus move in power by the end of the story. It’s time to pray for increased hope. If you are struggling with stress right now, remember that God isn’t finished writing your story yet, and when he’s done, it will blow your mind.