I want to consider 5 ways to cultivate hope.
Gratitude: Gratitude is an expression of hope and it gives life to your hope. With gratitude, you are able to cultivate more good feelings, increase your optimism, and get a fresh outlook on life.
God is a God of relationship. He is the God of hope!
Your outlook determines the outcome. I want to encourage you to keep a gratitude journal, learn to say thank you for every little thing, and for any act of kindness you receive daily. John Mason once said: “the weed of discouragement cannot grow in a grateful heart .” It is impossible to complain and murmur and be grateful at the same time.
Understand purpose: Your purpose is your reason for being here on the earth right now. It is what you are created to do. No one is on the earth today by accident or by chance. There is a reason for your existence.
knowing what you are living for will help you keep your hope alive. Living your purpose will motivate you to get out of bed in the morning and get moving throughout the day.
Your outlook determines the outcome.
Why are you here? What are you doing to make your life count? What are you doing to contribute to the well-being of others? Please remember without purpose hope dies because there will be no reason to hope. Life becomes empty without purpose and emptiness is a breeding ground for hopelessness. Hopelessness breeds depression.
Go sightseeing: What you constantly look at can help grow your hope or cause it to wither. If all you have been looking at is what has not been working for you; then it is time to change your picture and cultivate a new one. Your mind will embrace whatever you continually feed it.
No one is on the earth today by accident or by chance. knowing what you are living for will help you keep your hope alive!
To change your picture for the better, I encourage you to change your environment. Drive into the country to look at the wonders of nature, go for a walk, look up, look at the grass around you even though it is winter and they appear to have withered, they still come alive during the spring and blossom during summer.
I know some people who are so depressed and unmotivated in their lives yet are watching TV shows that keep them down. There are some TV shows that are not healthy for your well-being. There are some movies that will not enhance your quest to cultivate hope in life. You need to cut them out of your life and replace them with shows that will empower you again.
Change the company you keep: Misery they say loves company. There are some people who are naturally downers, and the more you hang out with them the more hopeless you become. It is high time you associated with people who are capable of lifting you up. If you continue to spend time with those who are hopeless about life, they will drain you of your ability to hope.
emptiness is a breeding ground for hopelessness
Remember that sometimes it is better to be alone than to be in a wrong company.
Get to know God: I understand that when we talk about God, there is that possibility to associate Him with religion. God is a God of relationship. Whereas, religion is a manmade way of approaching God. However, God is a personable God who wants to have a personal relationship with you because He loves and cares for you.
What you constantly look at can help grow your hope or cause it to wither.
God is a God of hope. His view of life is different because He is the beginning and the ending and also the in-between. God also knows the end from the beginning and if you really want to cultivate your hope, you need to get to know Him personally.
When king David in the Bible was going through some tough times he wrote in Psalms 42: 5 (AMP)1
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become restless and disturbed within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.”
God can and will lift you out of despair if you surrender yourself to Him. He loves you so much and He will help you keep your hope alive. Let me give you an example of how God has helped me restore my hope. Some years back, I just moved into a new house and just had a baby when suddenly I lost my job. I applied for many jobs in the process but nothing was happening. It was difficult to pay my bills, but God came through for me as I called upon Him to help me. Although, your needs might be different from mine; but one thing is certain: God will help you, if you come to Him!
1Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation.