“Be strong and never afraid. Look, here comes your God! He is breaking through to give you victory! He comes to avenge your enemies. With divine retribution He comes to save you!” – Isaiah 35:4 (TPT)

As a child, do you remember freely getting your hopes up?

You showed the world you had your hopes up, and you think didn’t think twice about it.

Then life happens… and soon that little child in you starts to realize that sometimes people will let you down. Promises aren’t always kept, and sometimes people don’t come through. Sometimes life circumstances don’t play out the way you hoped they would.

Then, growing up you start to rethink getting excited, getting your hopes up –you might have even felt embarrassed for showing that you ever got your hopes up about anything. The joy of excitement and hope starts to fade.

Well, the good news is, you can “get your hopes up” with God.

We can get our hopes up with Him. He IS the God of hope!

Do you know He has good gifts in store for His children? We can be excited for the things He has for us, we can get excited about the changes He wants to make, the breakthroughs we hope for, the healing we long for, the freedom we crave.

We can get our hopes up, in fact He wants us to. He longs for us to say,

I heard this song for the first time this past week (I know, I’m on a new music kick) and it really, really stuck with me. It’s almost like I can feel/hear the light of hope coming out of it. It encouraged me, and it reminded me that I don’t have to feel embarrassed about getting my hopes up in the Lord. Our heavenly Father wants us to tell everyone about how much we hope in His goodness, how much we hope in His faithfulness.

I’ll tell it here, what I tell myself:

“Dare to get your hopes up. Don’t push them away.”

“I see the son waking up the morning,

reviving dreams
I feel the wind on my back with promise,

reminding me
There’s a garment of praise for heaviness
There’s a new song burning inside my chest
I’m living in the goodness that He brings

Get your hopes up
Lift your head
Let your faith arise
Get your hopes up
Our God is for us
He’s brought us back to life

I see the son waking up the morning,

reviving dreams
I feel the wind on my back with promise,

reminding me
There’s a garment of praise for heaviness
There’s a new song burning inside my chest
I’m living in the goodness that He brings

Get your hopes up
Lift your head
Let your faith arise
Get your hopes up
Our God is for us
He’s brought us back to life
Get your hopes up
Lift your head
Let your faith arise
Get your hopes up
Our God is for us
He’s brought us back to life

Christ before me
Christ behind me
I am firmly held
In his mercy
Never ending
I remind myself
Christ before me
Christ behind me
I am firmly held
In his mercy
Never ending
I remind myself

Get your hopes up
Lift your head
Let your faith arise
Get your hopes up
Our God is for us
He’s brought us back to life
Get your hopes up
Lift your head
Let your faith arise
Get your hopes up
Our God is for us
He’s brought us back to life”