Did you know that hope is the currency of your heart? It’s the way in which you’re going to be able to take risks. Take anything on, a challenge, whatever it is – you hope to have the confidence to achieve amazing things.

So, what will it take to have the right amount of hope and confidence? 

When we think about hope, we think about being optimistic and believe and trust that things can happen even though we can only see the outcomes later. You’ve done it in business many times. You’ve done it when you’ve taken on a new venture or decided to acquire a business, or maybe it was just the start of something new. Hope must be present (that hope of your heart, that money in your heart) to go forward and take the risk. So, what does it take to have more hope? 

Thanksgiving fills up your heart with hope, which creates gratitude.  When you can look back and realize how far you’ve come and see all that God’s done, your heart is filled, and you have a heart high in hope. Now you’ve got the money in your heart to put that down payment on the adventure God calls you to. The opportunity with which you want to take on in your business, your family, or the mission that God’s got for you. 

Filling up your heart with hope is so important. And yet, so often we find the opposite trying to get the best of us. It’s fear. The thing with which we hope won’t happen. Physiologically, when you’re afraid, your mind’s eye cannot see opportunities. You lose the ability to have hope. Fear and hope are opposites, so we want to fill up with hope to do the things we aim for. 

I’m the first to say that it’s a challenge. We want to have an immense amount of margin—a surplus of hope and confidence.  You know what it feels like when you want to take something on, but you’re overdrawn on your Hope account. Your heart is empty of the hope that you want. 

Here is the secret to playing with the house’s money — the way to build a bank account of hope: It’s gratitude. 

A friend once told me about the crazy process of trying to row a boat in the ocean in an effort to catch the sun! If you and I got in a raft together and started to row as hard as possible towards the sun as if we could somehow reach it, we would run out of gas trying. We will lose hope, constantly looking and thinking, “I’m rowing as hard as I can, yet I’m getting nowhere. I’m not going to reach it.” 

As achievers, we often face a challenge in our minds. We’re constantly thinking about what we still need to do, what we wish we had already accomplished, and how we don’t have what we thought we should have by now. But if we look back to the shore and see how far we’ve come and realize that we’re making a little bit of progress every day, gratitude will fill our hearts. And even better, if we recognize God’s part in our progress then the gratitude we cultivate will convert to hope. This process of gratitude gives me incredible confidence in the bet I want to place and the risk I am willing to take.

What has He done to make you grateful? I’m considering this today because I want a big hope bank account. I want a big heart to make the bet that God will deliver. And by the way, your faith is a bet. You know, we say faith is spelled R-I-S-K. Faith is a bet.  And Jesus is where the best money is put. (If you’ve stopped feeling a sense of a bet or risk in your Kingdom life – let’s talk.  Please send me an email.)

When you’re considering your faith and what you’re trusting God for, you’re making bets, and your heart wants hope to be able to make those bets. In the absence of hope, you’re going to run to fear, and you’re going to start to merely cope. You’re going to break down. You’ll miss the opportunity. 

Gratitude is a practice, and its impact is profound. Let’s explore how incorporating gratitude into our daily routine can significantly influence our mindset. This is what Heather and I do every day before we go to sleep. We talk about our wins. We discuss our wins that day, even the most minor, minute thing we call out because we know it will make deposits in our hearts. This gives us the margin to believe God’s going to show up. 

Gratitude is not just an attitude; it’s the verb with which we can make hope deposits every day. Hope is the currency of your heart that allows you to place your bet in faith. God bless you as you prepare for what comes next because the future counts on your hope.

In your corner,
Jeff

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