×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

The link between you and hope

Opinion & Analysis
The following illustration paints a clear picture of the need to first change self. Someone, it could be you, prayed this prayer for years: “O Lord, change the world.” Pastor Makarimayi The world did not change. He fasted about it but nothing changed. He reduced the prayer: “O Lord, change my continent.” Nothing happened. He […]

The following illustration paints a clear picture of the need to first change self. Someone, it could be you, prayed this prayer for years: “O Lord, change the world.”

Pastor Makarimayi

The world did not change. He fasted about it but nothing changed.

He reduced the prayer: “O Lord, change my continent.”

Nothing happened. He reduced if further: “O Lord, change my country,” but the country did not change. He reduced it even further: “O Lord, change my neighbourhood,” but nothing changed.

He reduced it even further still: “O Lord, change my family,” but still the family did not change.

Lastly he prayed: “O Lord, change me,” and alas the whole world changed.

The bottom line is, if you and I do not change, everyone and everything else will not change.

Paradoxically, everyone wants to change everyone else except themselves.

Many dream of touching and changing the world. The world of course doesn’t change unless we do.

With this understanding, many hang the following philosophy on their walls: “God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.”

Kirsten Zambucka echoes and says: “Though I might travel afar, I will meet only what I carry with me, for every man is a mirror.

“We see only ourselves reflected in those around us. Their attitudes and actions are only a reflection of our own. The whole world and its condition has its counterparts within us all. Turn the gaze inward. Correct yourself and your world will change.

“It’s also true that many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes.

“This kind of incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary and not evolutionary. So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future.

“It’s why we invest in areas that may seem wildly speculative, such as self-driving cars or a balloon-powered internet.

“While it’s hard to imagine now, when we started Google Maps, people thought that our goal of mapping the entire world, including photographing every street, would prove impossible.

“So if the past is any indicator of our future, today’s big bets won’t seem so wild in a few years’ time.” This message is an excerpt From: “8- How Google Works (Eric Schmidt).” Grand Central Publishing, 2014-09-23. iBooks, with additional quotations from me.

What does the future hold for you is the question often asked. I ask, what do you hold in the present for your future?

Many don’t want to be hopeful because it requires their action and positive engagement to direct the trajectory of life in a desired way.

“In the first place it appears to cost to have hope but it will pay off in the end when the fruit of your positivity brings smiles. If there’s hope in the future, there’s power in the present.

“Make that power generating plant in your heart. It has capacity to generate wattage to change your world. There’re people who always complain whether it’s summer or winter, day or night, sunny or on rain day. Resist and desist from that folly. Hope is your launchpad; choose it. Be instructed by Hebrews 6:19a which teaches. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and a fast.” Hope solidifies and anchors your now and secures your future.

By its very nature, hope concerns the future. Romans 8:24-25 explains “(24) For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? (25) But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Naturalistically, hope is wishful thinking about something good happening in the future.

Biblically, hope is a firm confidence from God about future issues because they are based on God’s promises and revelation.

Biblical hope is linked inseparably with a firm faith and a confident trust in God.

Therefore, some say hope is the parent of faith. The Word of God promises redemption and punishment for transgression, you have a right of choice to ask God for forgiveness or be coerced by the devil to live with guilt all your life. It’s an open cheque, fill in the details you prefer.

If you are sick, you can choose to hope for recuperation or death. Your hope will produce faith, and faith leads to action. The action will be to conduct yourself according to your hope and belief. If the hope is for negative outcome, you will conduct yourself as already eaten up and finished by circumstances and waiting to die quietly. If that’s the case, you fast track yourself to your demise. If you are hoping for good, you jump to do the right thing and accelerate your desired breakthrough. Tomorrow will come whether we approach it with hope or despair. With hope, we will be energised and geared up while with despair we may be suffering from migraine and depression. There is hope for you if you so like or despair if you choose. I pray that you choose hope and brighten your life. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.

All Bible quotations are from the King James version unless otherwise stated.