Hope in Training: Your Spiritual Bosu Disc

I've discovered a new fitness device thanks to a personal trainer that I had at Gold's Gym....the Bosu Disc. It is a flat disc on one side and a squishy inflatable half ball on the other. The purpose is to develop your stability or core muscles. There are numerous exercises one can do with the disc, depending on which side you choose to use. It basically makes all exercises a little harder.  Even simple squats on the disc require extra balance. You can feel all your little muscles fighting against gravity to keep you upright, maintain your balance, and prevent you from falling off the surface as you perform  the task. Initially you are pretty shaky. But as you get stronger, and your core muscles are more secure, the shaking diminishes.  I remember my trainer told me that as you get stronger, those episodes of off-balance where you almost fall off won't be such a big deal...you'll recover easily because you've developed strength in your core.
I was sitting in church one morning and the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, "Your core is like hope. It requires training."
I had to think about this for a minute. Because I guess I always thought that as a faith issue we either put our hope in Jesus Christ or we didn't. I guess I didn't realize that hope itself might need some gym time.  Spiritually speaking, your core muscle of faith is what or whom you put your trust in. Fundamentally, it is where you derive hope. Hope really is at our core; I'm not sure how you make it through life without hope. Proverbs 13:12 puts it this way..."Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life."  You can flex your muscles of faith in all sorts of different areas of life, but when something challenging comes along with the ability to knock you off your feet, it is the core of your belief system that will keep you standing. Do you trust God or not? I mean....do you REALLY trust God or not? This is hope. I've learned over the last few months that in my faith walk, hope goes through training. God has shown me that by training my hope in him, each time something in life comes along with potential to knock me off my feet, the work I've done him in the past prevents it from having that affect. In fact, the stronger I get, the less I am even shaken by it. Over the last few months I've had several opportunities to work out my spiritual core muscle.  Each time that I was presented opportunities to not trust God, with the option of trying to take control of  the situation, hope was in training. By trusting God and believing what he told me, I was training my hope and becoming so much more stable in my faith walk. I realized this when the one thing I had been praying for walked in the door and I told God that if this wasn't his plan, I'd be okay with that because I trust him and know he has my best at heart. It was like going to the gym and benching 150 pounds...I saw my hope muscle stronger than it had ever been and I realized all this gym time with God has paid off.
Why is it important to train your hope? Because just like gravity, there is a constant pull on your life to fulfill a calling for which you were placed on this Earth. There are always going to be situations in life that will attempt to derail you, cause you lose balance, or fall. One thing about the Bosu disc I have learned is that the exercises are so much easier if you keep your eyes focused on one spot out in front of you.
"And let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Heb 12:2
People are watching us as we work out our muscles of faith; just like at the gym. The world wants to see if your core is really what you say it is. Our world craves authenticity. God trains our hope so that we will fulfill our calling; as we build our hope we work with gravity to accomplish a task instead of being knocked over by it. Scripture puts it this way..."Therefore my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm (make SECURE)  your calling and election, for if you do these things, you will never stumble and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:10-11
My friends, that is hope in training.