Today, I’d like to talk about hope.
Let me explain to you how important hope is.
May I ask you to do an experiment?
For ten minutes, don’t breathe. After ten minutes, evaluate your experience. Write it down. Like how you saw a light at the end of a tunnel. And saw Angels for the first time. And then ask Archangel Michael to deliver your written report to my house.
Just kidding.
You need oxygen to survive.
Well, I believe hope is like oxygen.
You need hope to live everyday.
May I share?
I’m not just a preacher. I’m also an entrepreneur. And I teach people how to be entrepreneurs. Here’s what I noticed. I have yet to meet a successful entrepreneur whose is a pessimist. Honest! All the successful people I know are optimists. They have bushels of hope in their hearts.
Why? Because you won’t start a business, or sell a product, or give jobs to people, or do all that hard work, if you don’t have hope that you’ll succeed.
Especially when trials come…
The Power Of Perspective
My main message to you today? To have hope, you must believe that there are treasures in your trials.
One day, my wife and I were talking about one of our friends.
“How old is she?” I asked her.
“She’s forty.”
“Wow, she’s young,” I said.
And suddenly, it hit me like someone splashed water on my face. My gosh. I started laughing.
Because not too long ago, I used to think that forty was ancient. Prehistoric. Jurassic. Yet today, I was calling her young. Haha!
Here’s a powerful truth: Meaning comes from Perspective. And Perspective comes from your Position. Because Perspective comes from where you stand.
When I looked at 40 beforeI reached 40, I thought 40 meant “Boring”, “Staid”, “Old hat”. In my mind you were a decaying fossil. A museum artifact.
But now that I’m in my forties, I think 40 is hip, stylish, cool, and gorgeous!
In the same way, if you look at your trial unfolding in front of you, it feels like it’s the end of the world. You feel like you’re drowning. You feel like dying.
But if you look at your trial after it’s all over, that’s when you see God’s purpose behind that trial. And you’ll say, “Thank God I went through that problem.”
This is my definition of hope: Physically, you’re in front of your trial, but spiritually, you’re looking back at it–after it’s over. When all is well. When you have overcome.
In other words, Hope is taking on God’s perspective. You look at your trial the way God looks at your trial.
That’s hope.
When Trials Become Treasures
One day, a friend called me up.
Marlon’s voice was heavy with anguish. “My daughter talked to me and my wife this morning…”
He explained that 16-year old child, not even in college yet, said the most dreaded words any parent of a teenager would want to hear. She said, “I’m pregnant.”
“Bo, she’s just a baby!” the father cried. “How can my baby be having a baby? She still has Barbie dolls in her room. Brother Bo, it’s the end of the world for me.”
I told Marlon, “No, it’s not the end of your world.”
“Bo, tell me what to do…”
“Go back to your daughter. No scolding. No shouting. Just love her. Forgive her. Put your arms around her. Cry with her. And tell her you’ll accept her baby. Mark my words. This isn’t the end of the world. You’ll overcome this.”
Eight years have passed since that trial happened in Marlon’s family. And true enough, the trial transformed them in an amazing way. Today, they’re 10 times closer with each other. They love each other profoundly.
Their daughter has matured too. She’s doing well in her career; She has a new boyfriend who loves her and her child.
And the baby? The very cause of all their hurt and anger and fears? The child is now the star of the family. The biggest source of joy for the grandparents!
If you’re grieving now, I want you to have hope. Your storm will pass. Your pain will disappear. And your trial will turn into triumph.
In each Trial, you’ll find these 3 treasures…
3 Treasures In Your Trial
Each trial in your life is like an ugly, crummy, smelly, dilapidated box. On the outside, it looks atrocious. When you’re in front of the trial, that’s all you see. It’s hideous!
But if you look at it after it’s over, you realize it contains 3 beautiful treasures!
Here they are…
1.Comfort
This is the first treasure.
When you go through your trial, God will comfort you.
That’s His promise. And He never breaks a promise.
Everytime I go through a trial, I wait for God’s comfort. Because that’s what He promised. And without fail, His comfort comes.
A few years ago, I was in the middle of a huge storm. I was in a lot of emotional pain. My closest friends, upon knowing what I was going through, surrounded me with love. My friends were God’s comfort to me.
That day, I thanked God that because of my problem, I learned I had the greatest friends in the world. I’m a truly rich man because of my friends!
The second treasure…
2. Character
Last week, I met a man with cancer.
But he was very different from many sick people I know.
He told me, “I live each day with passion!”
He said, “I wake up looking at each morning as God’s precious gift to me. I now sing more often, embrace more often, laugh more often, play more often, and pray more often. I never did this before I had cancer–because I was too busy making a living, I forgot about making a life. Yes, I lost my health. But I now treasure life itself.”
Wow!
Because of him, I now believe that trials have a way of making us grow in the most important part of who we are–our character.
And the third treasure…
3. Compassion
This is important: A trial may give birth to a ministry.
The Bible says, Blessed be…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort that we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
One day, I met a young, beautiful woman after one prayer meeting. She had this beautiful smile on her face, and it was like peace was oozing out of her.
“Can I tell you my story?” she said.
“Sure,” I said. We sat down and she started talking.
“I was raped by my parish priest,” she told me.
She recounted her story, how it happened, and how she hated God, abandoned the Church, and stopped praying. Her heart was filled with rage.
But she also told me how God reached out to her, how He touched her, and how He healed her
Honestly, I thought these things happened only in Noli Me Tangere with the likes of Padre Damaso.
“What are you doing now?” I asked.
“I’m a prayer group leader,” she said. “I minister to many other broken women. I know what they’re going through. I can help them in a way that only a broken woman can…”
The third treasure in your trial is a deeper compassion for people who are going through the same pain you went through.
And They Lived Happily Ever After
When it comes to movies, I’m a sucker for happy endings.
Well, if you include Heaven in the equation, your life is an epic movie that will have a happy ending. And they lived happily ever after isn’t just for fairy tales.
It’s your story.
So if you’re going through a great trial now, remember: One day, every problem in your life will be solved.
Every sickness will be healed.
Every tear will be dried up.
Never give up.
Discover your treasure in your trials.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
PS. Last Call:If you want to grow your money and gain financial freedom, join my TrulyRich Financial Coaching Program on November 11 and 12 in Pasig. This powerful Seminar will change your financial life. For details, click here now.
PS. The Membership Site Program by Jojy Azurin starting Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. Larry Gamboa, Randy Manaloto and Anton Diaz have been planning this program since the first program a year ago. If you want to know more about Membership Sites, watch this video: Why Membership Sites? Click here.
