where do you put your hope?

Where you put your hope really reveals where you put your trust.

Hope reveals your thoughts for the future. What you trust in is the foundation of your hope. Are your thoughts based in the reality of your situation. I mean a clear understanding. Or are they based in wishful thinking?

If the foundation of your hope is sinking sand and not the "Solid Rock", then your hope is based on lies and delusions of who you "think" you are.

The ability to anticipate.

The problem is we think we can.verb: anticipate; 3rd person present: anticipates; past tense: anticipated; past participle: anticipated; gerund or present participle: anticipating

1. regard as probable; expect or predict. "she anticipated scorn on her return to the theater"

Similar: expect, foresee, predict, think likely, forecast, prophesy

Much of what we do is with an expectation of an anticipated response. Rarely are we satisfied with the response? Why? Maybe our expectation is flawed... I hear."be humble, let Me (GOD) add to your perspective."

Vagaries? GOD IS NOT SURPRISED!

noun - plural noun: vagaries
an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behavior.

The vagaries of life are unexpected and therefore cannot be anticipated. But God is not surprised! 

The same is true of "vicissitudes".

"When you talk of the vicissitudes of life, you're referring to the difficult times that we all go through: sickness, job loss, and other unwelcome episodes. No one can escape the vicissitudes of life"

Vocabulary.com

Hallmarks of Biblical faith

Anticipation and expectation are hallmarks of Biblical faith. They indicate the presence of hope that comes from even the smallest glimmer of understanding.

Not hope based on wishful thinking. But on a promise embraced. Not on a scripture verse claimed, but on a personal word spoken by the Holy Spirit that bears witness to Biblical truth and relates to our situation. Faith comes by "hearing" God's voice and hearing God's voice comes by knowing the written word of God. (Two witnesses)

"Developing an ear for His voice seems to be at the heart of this issue, for faith comes by hearing, not having heard (see Rom. 10:17). Faith implies a present tense relationship with God. What we know can keep us from what we need to know if we don't stay childlike in our approach to life and ministry." Bill Johnson

Experience and knowledge compared to Wisdom and understanding.

One does not mean you have the other. Experience and knowledge is a function of our ability to remember. Wisdom and understanding is a function of our ability to anticipate and reason. The problem is that knowledge puffs up, and pride is a stumbling block to wisdom.

Humility is the first step a wise man will make. A teachable heart is the path to understanding.

Have a Hope

God says he has a plan for you. Are you paying attention?

Jeremiah 29:11 RSV  "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Who did Jesus say had the greatest faith? What did the Centurion understand? (Authority)

What did it motivate him to do?  He asked Jesus to "give the command". What was Jesus' answer?

A promise!

Abraham's faith was based on a promise. He believed God and it was accounted to him righteousness.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him.
What is the reward?

2 Corinthians 1:20.  For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

Hebrews 6:13  For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

Here you are. Now!, is the time.

When we believe time exists we think that the future is something that gives us the opportunity to put off the need to change. The need to change is presented to us by our current situation and the memory of how we got here. Here is "Here" and it changes according to deterministic laws outside our control, except for our ability to choose "this and not that".

You exist in the "Here and Now". The reality of your existence is brought into focus by your ability to remember how things were different and anticipate change before it happens.

The problem is your insight into the "Now' is limited to your inertial frame and what you can infer from your experience in it.

"Now" is all that exists. "Here", is your position in the now in relation to everything else.

Here is the dynamic. You are in a constant state of change. The change is incomprehensible to one restricted by their inertial frame.

Here you are and Now is the time. Tomorrow may never come.

However you define "Present" God is in the "Here and Now"

Jehovah Shammah: God is Present... The "present" is the time that is associated with the events perceived directly, not as a recollection of the past (memory) or a speculation of the future (reason). It is often called now.

"Now" is where I become.

Now is where I am. Where I am changes and that change is beyond my control, mostly. Try to stop the moment from passing by. Can you? It is just like your choices. Can you stop making choices? Try it...

See what I mean, you've just experienced the determinism created by the interaction of mass and energy.

Tensed facts are created in the the continuum of reality that I call "Now". In their creation they become unalterable. They are created by the temporal, dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy.

The observer, you and me, are confronted by reason and memory. We remember the way things were and we anticipate how things could be. I say "could" because memory and reason give us the ability to make a choice. This, not that. It is the power to over-ride the determinism of the continuum.

All of us are becoming... what? It's up to us to choose. We can't stop making choices but we can decide what we will choose.

We can't stop making choices but our choices determine who we become. The dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy can be overcome by choice. Our choices determine our destiny... or do they?

All of us are becoming.

Now is where I am. Where I am changes and that change is beyond my control, mostly. Try to stop the moment from passing by. Can you? It is just like your choices. Can you stop making choices?

Tensed facts are created in the now of the continuum of reality. In their creation they become unalterable. They are created by the temporal, dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy.

The observer, you and me, are confronted by reason and memory. We remember the way things were and we anticipate how things could be. I say "could" because memory and reason give us the ability to make a choice. This, not that. It is the power to over-ride the determinism of the continuum.

All of us are becoming... what? It's up to us to choose. We can't stop making choices but we can decide what we will choose.

Presentism vs Eternalism

What exists resides in the now. What exists is temporal because it is dynamic and constantly changes and the change is tensed because cause and effect produces the change.

What exists in the now creates tensed facts that are unalterable.

The change is deterministic outside of the observer's ability to choose. The ability to choose comes from the capacity to remember what things were like and the ability to anticipate what things will be like. Memory and reason.

Choice creates the potential to break the bonds of determinism.

Once the choice is made it becomes unalterable.

The now is eternal. Divide infinity in half, what do you have? Calculate how many moments eternity holds?....

The truth is always simple.