The Hopeful Perspective
Welcome to "The Hopeful Perspective" a podcast discussing what it entails to transform from a personal position of suffering, pain, loss and HOPELESSNESS toward a renewed perspective of security, perseverance, love and HOPE. I am your host, Jason Hopkins, a long time victim and survivor who has personally been impacted by the Lord to be a victor and a thriver! In each podcast episode you can expect to find authentic dialog from a Biblical and experiential perspective—that is, BEYOND mere religious anecdotes and simple academic exercise—though all used together engage how to find the HOPE that is essential in moving from a victim to victory. Survivor to thriver. Hopeless to hopeful.
Please download, share, subscribe and stay tuned for this journey with me. Leave a review to support and spread awareness for the Hopeful Perspective. As a man who has lived, studied and who truly understands the definition of not only 'surviving' trauma, but authentically thriving as a renewed creation amidst a broken and hurting world, I am humbled to share this platform with you. Prepare to be a critical thinker, a passionate responder and ultimately to be inspired towards The Hopeful Perspective. I would be honored to eventually earn your trust, and welcome you as a part of the 'Hopeful' family.
The Hopeful Perspective
Special Thanksgiving Episode: How Worship Grants us Gratitude in the Storm
Drawing inspiration from Colossians 3, this episode explores how practicing an attitude of gratitude shaped my worldview, inspired hope, and fostered resilience amid challenges. This episode encourages a deeper connection with faith through gratitude, offering a candid look at howkeeping our eyes on Christ during adversity can lead to profound personal transformation.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we reflect on the importance of gratitude, not just as a seasonal sentiment but as a year-round practice that enhances our spiritual lives. We challenge you to embrace gratitude and hope, urging you to focus on spiritual reflection during this festive season. Whether you're seeking comfort in faith or looking for ways to spread hope, this episode is a heartfelt reminder that hope is real and you are loved. Join us on this journey of spreading gratitude and thanksgiving, and consider supporting our mission to share this message with a wider audience.
Are you inspired by what you hear today? Jason deeply appreciates his listeners taking their time to listening, downloading, and sharing The Hopeful Perspective Podcast. Please help me spread 'hope' to others by writing a review for the podcast making it reachable for all who need to be inspired, encouraged, and changed by hoping once again. Further, understand that downloading the podcast is a surefire way to help increase the algorithm thus the reach of The Hopeful Perspective, even if you delete the episode after listening so as to not affect your data storage. I have also provided a (Support the Show) link DIRECTLY ABOVE THIS PARAGRAPH to click on for those who have shared with me they are "all in" and feel called to financially support the mission and vision of The Hopeful Perspective. A special thank you to those who have made this humble step to financially support the podcast. Without you, there is no US!
Jason Hopkins can also be reached on Facebook as well as Instagram and Threads (jayhop9953). You can also follow 'The Hopeful Perspective' FB page; where you can find more information as well as learn about upcoming news and episodes on the The Hopeful Perspective Podcast.
Welcome to the Hopeful Perspective Podcast. I am your host, jason Hopkins. This podcast is designed to give you a perspective of hope that impacts your daily life in an authentic and tangible way. I have utilized the first six episodes of this podcast to share my own personal life story, which illustrates God's glory. Through experiences overcoming child abuse and trauma, 26 foster homes and institutions, various diagnoses affecting me throughout my life and an eventual brain tumor resulting in multiple brain surgeries on my brain stem. I have moved from merely a surviving victim to a faithful and thriving victor, who the Lord has motivated to help others to discover hope. Victor, who the Lord has motivated to help others to discover hope. Though my past was full of pain and suffering, I have been restored with purpose and sanctification. I have been redeemed and called to follow Christ within that redemption and renewed perspective.
Speaker 1:If you have not heard this story, I encourage you to go to the beginning and check it out now, and I now want to help you, too, to have a biblical and hopeful perspective as you approach differing situations in your own life, from the delightful to the difficult and everything in between. I want to thank you for listening, and you have done so, taking the time to downloading our episodes, as when you download, along with rating our podcast with an honest response, you help the algorithm immensely to spread our reach. That said, our stats demonstrate that while thousands listen and stream the Hopeful Perspective, less than 10% actually download our episodes. Please consider bridging the gap. To help broaden that reach for us, we have also provided a few options to contact our show with your direct feedback, as well as to support the podcast financially. If you are called to partner with us in bringing hope to a hurting world, just click the embedded links found on any podcast episode you are downloading on your podcast platform. So, before we get started today, I want to compel you to grab your favorite snack, hot or cold beverage, get comfortable and come on this journey with me as we discuss the glorious worship of the Lord through gratitude and thanksgiving. Now I know it's been some time since we have released a podcast in our series Right Side Up, upside Down, where we are discussing Jesus' teachings on the Sermon on the Mount. Three weeks, in fact, have passed since episode 22 was released and we discussed what it meant, as disciples, to be salt and light and for Jesus to fulfill or make full the law and the prophets and how he commanded and desired for us to honor the spirit of the law above the letter of the law. We will indeed continue this series in upcoming episodes but, as we know, this upcoming Thursday is Thanksgiving and I could think of no better way to come back this week than to have a special episode discussing the heart of gratitude and worship toward our Creator and how this impacts our faith and worldview, particularly that of hope Friends to open with.
Speaker 1:I must say that the past few weeks for me have been challenging again, to say the least, as it pertains to my health, both physically and even mentally. And if nothing else, I certainly have committed to you that I want to remain authentic as I deal with the struggle of a chronic pain disorder paralleled with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder that can trigger one another. They create chaos on my daily walk. My heart is to be as integrous and remain as faithful to the Lord, my family and my calling, despite these challenges and, ideally, to fulfill all my commitments. Yet the truth is that sometimes the most significant need I have is to take the time to care for my sleep, my physical and mental health that is neglected during the most difficult of seasons when I am experiencing my flare-ups. I confess this is not easy, being weak and vulnerable, nor powerless. Despite the practice I've had over 44 years in a variety of manners, I've wanted to produce quality content on this podcast in a consistent manner, and you can ask my wife and others who are witnessing this undertaking how much it pains me to miss a single week of production, let alone multiple weeks. Yet, honoring God first and foremost, the last few weeks has meant stepping back, and I know that my commitments to the proper order and priority will result in the blessings in the long run, and that is the ultimate goal. I want to thank all of you for your patience, your prayers and your persistence.
Speaker 1:Alongside of me, my middle teenager, a vivacious, 18-year-old, strong-minded and compassionate young woman, beautiful inside and out, has a faith that is inspiring to me as she has grown in it. Over the years, we have bonded over multiple things we have in common, one being that she's a starting shooting guard on our high school basketball team and is one of the better shooters in the state of Oregon. She's considering playing at the next level. Shooters in the state of Oregon. She is considering playing at the next level. She has, in fact, a clever and fierce sense of humor and has been honing her calling to be a worship leader. She is recently learning the guitar and, though musically we have nothing in common namely because I have no musical talent and she has the voice of an angel I love how she has chased her call to follow the Lord, leading others to the throne room for his glory. She hears him clearly, yet it so warms my heart that she still desires to come to her dad from time to time to ask my perspective about an invocation, benediction, prayer or passage she is studying to share with the group she is leading. This is the context for which this week's podcast subject and teaching is coming from, inspired from the heart and the mind of the Lord, through the lens of my 18-year-old daughter, who was a worshiper first and worship leader second. The passage she asked for my help and perspective on is from Colossians 3. She focused on verses 15-17 as she only was granted a minute during her worship segment to encourage the youth she was leading. But for our sake, I want us to look at the full context of what Paul is saying in these verses. So we will look at this brief chapter If you've been following along with us in our most recent series Right Side Up.
Speaker 1:Upside Down Jesus' Teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Upside Down Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. You know that Jesus is helping his followers to know more clearly what it means to be one of his disciples and, being that most of his audience are Jewish, they are having to learn about the kingdom of heaven amidst their current understanding of what it meant to be Jewish and to follow the law. We left off, as mentioned before, that Jesus came to make full the law and the prophets. We left off, as mentioned before, that Jesus came to make full the law and the prophets. He came to bring a new kingdom where salvation is attained by faith in him, by his grace alone, which could only be better understood by the time Paul is writing Colossians, as Christ's sacrifice would have been made. With this in mind, colossians 3 reads as a beautiful insert into this series, where we left off being salt and light and we would learn that the observing of the spirit of the law thou shalt not lust rises above the letter of the law. Thou shalt not commit adultery. With that in mind, let's read together Paul's teachings to the disciples in Colossae in chapter 3.
Speaker 1:Since then, you've been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.
Speaker 1:Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all the wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him.
Speaker 1:Did you hear that? You see, I know more than anything else. In my current battles that I wage, I need more than anything to take my eyes off of the circumstances that often depress me or seem dire and to put them on the only thing that I know are secure. The apostle Paul tells us the most effective way of doing this is to set our minds on things above where Christ now is. I know when I do this, not focusing on the seemingly unknown, the impossible, chaotic and deadly circumstances of the world around me I am reminded of not only the sacrifices that Christ made for me to date, all throughout my life, but I am reinforced, encouraged and motivated that he has my hand in walking me through what I go through now by myself.
Speaker 1:Without His perspective. I am prone to flounder and fall on my face or, before I get there, I become embittered, resentful and my attitude reflects disbelief in a Redeemer and Restorer. But my God heals and my God saves. We are then reminded about our old selves and to take inventory of that earthly nature and just how disgusting and how shameful that I used to be. I mean that person without Christ before I walked faithfully with him, that person that I can become if I allow my gaze to become focused on my worldly circumstances and I become enticed by my fleshly desires to medicate the pain I feel when I become depressed and disillusioned yes, I was this person before and if I allow that eye level to fall too low or too long where Christ is currently seated that is what my spiritual reality truly is Then I can resort back to the person with the coping mechanisms and the attitudes I do not desire to be, for, as verse 12 reminds us, I am part of his chosen people.
Speaker 1:Do you notice the commands issued in this particular verse? We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Friends, this is a call to self-care, and I'm not sure about you, but I am having to grow in the discipline of applying these fruits of the Holy Spirit to my own self, so that I am a vessel that is capable of caring for others as he has cared for me. I'm not sure where you are today. Perhaps you are in a place of great abundance, joy, and where it is easy to have that attitude of gratitude. If so, I do pray that you do not take for granted this season that you are in and that you attribute your abundance to the one who blesses us with our daily provision. Or perhaps you are in a place more similar to me, where the days seem longer and you are battling. The circumstances we are in are weighing on us and you are having difficulty. You and I both need to give thanks during this time, but the key is this we need to avert our eyes.
Speaker 1:In Matthew, chapter 14, we can recall this event when the disciples were experiencing a literal storm on the waters. Then they see the Lord Jesus in the distance, looking like a ghost, walking on the water in the middle of the storm. We pick it up in verse 28. Lord, if it's you, peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink. He cried out Lord, save me. Immediately, jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith, he said why did you doubt? Do you see how, the moment Peter began focusing on his fears of the storm that raged around him and he averted his eyes from Jesus to his circumstances, that he began to sink? In the same way, when I begin to take my eyes off of Christ and focus on my own problems, I tend to sink to my lowest points. I need to cry out to him to save me and keep my eyes on him, not on my circumstances, to rise above the storm. This is what having gratitude does. When I worship the Lord, I give him thanks, no matter what the situation or the circumstance that I am in, and I declare God that he is good and I give him glory despite these circumstances.
Speaker 1:This is Thanksgiving, this is the season of gratitude, and I want to encourage you this holiday season, this week. I want to encourage you that, if you don't have this tradition already in place, to begin it. If you already have a tradition, add this one to it. Encourage your family around the table a place of festivity, abundant with a daily provision of our Lord, to go around and state what they are thankful for. In the last year, I recognize that family dynamics range wide and can be particularly tricky if not triggered at the holidays. Yet this does not have to be a complex exercise, so perhaps you will have to prime the pump a little bit.
Speaker 1:Go first, name a few things that you are thankful for, that is, in your life. If you are a believer in Christ, you better believe. You are attributing gratitude to the one who provided for you. If you are not quite there yet to being a believer in Christ, you still too can be grateful, and this tradition can be deeply meaningful. The opportunity provided for us on Thursday afternoon goes far beyond the food, the family and the football. We have an opportunity for reflection, and this is a gift all in itself, regardless of where you are on your spiritual journey.
Speaker 1:You are listening today of what it means to be thankful, to keep our eyes on Christ and not on our earthly circumstances and I pray that, if you are listening, you are not just undergoing mere information transference, but rather you are sensing the Spirit talking directly to you Because, friends in my experience talking directly to you Because, friends in my experience, the Holy Spirit is deep and personal and with Him there are no accidents, incidents, coincidences or instances where he is not weaving His redemptive work in your life. Rather, as we are joined together right now on a podcast, as Jesus declared 2,000 years ago from a hillside sermon, we have an opportunity to join the kingdom of heaven. We have reason to have significant hope and gratitude in our lives right now. Perhaps you are sensing the Spirit moving you today toward Him, and I would be remiss if we left our time today without providing an opportunity for us to respond. And I want to pray for you right now. So, for all of you listening, I want you, in your spirit, to either agree with this prayer and lift those up praying it for the first time to the Lord, to be blessed and to be drawn to him.
Speaker 1:Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and I surrender my life to you. Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and I surrender my life to you. Wash me and cleanse me from all unforgiveness and pride. I believe that you are the Messiah that came to fulfill the law and the prophets, that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins and you rose again on the third day for my victory. I believe that in my heart and make confession with my mouth that you, jesus, are my Lord and my Savior, and that the kingdom of heaven is indeed forever. I want to live my life according to your terms and I want you to exchange my reliance on myself and any earthly vessels. I have placed hope and instead I want to trust your plan and I ask for you to put the people and the processes and the models to pursue restoration into my life.
Speaker 1:I ask for you to reveal to me where I have neglected the needs of those who are broken around me, where I have become indifferent, incapable or have been unable to prioritize those around me who need to feel the hope and the gratitude of Christ. Make me sensitive towards them, show me where I am called to be a part of your mission and I entrust myself to your equipping and sending, as you will. Thank you for being a God of mercy, a God of healing, a God of truth, a God of gratitude, of worship and a God of hope. Might I become a beacon of hope to the hurting. May I be one who shows and shares eternal life with those on their way to spiritual death. Make me your salt, help me to be your light. Show me your ways, lord. Give us the spiritual eyes to see on earth as it is in heaven, and may our priorities begin to reflect your heart and your kingdom, for it's in your name, jesus, that we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:If you have today agreed with this prayer from the depths of your heart, I either welcome you to the eternal family of God or I commend you in your return to the faith. I want to encourage you to find a church faith family who worships the Lord passionately or, as we said today, who constantly and desires to give thanks to him, who is committed to the teaching and the preaching of the scriptures and is committed to serving the community and beyond. Also, devote yourselves to the reading of the scriptures, as there is so much to grow, learn and be discipled in as it pertains to new life and maturity in Christ. The Lord has so much in the way of hope to show His children in His love letters that he has written to them, and hopeful family. It has been my pleasure to return today, after a few weeks off, to spend the morning, the afternoon or evening growing and learning with you. I look forward to tuning in next time on the Hopeful Perspective podcast, where we will continue unpacking the beauty and truth of the Sermon on the Mount Until. Then.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for joining me along this journey, allowing me to share from my heart today about gratitude and thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:And, if you would be so kind as to follow, thank you for joining me along this journey, allowing me to share from my heart today about gratitude and thanksgiving. And if you would be so kind as to follow, subscribe and, most importantly, rate and write a review for others on your platform who may need the hopeful perspective in their life. Did you know that you could contribute monetarily by pressing our support the show link that is embedded on your platform in the episode descriptions? I want to encourage you. If the whole perspective has been beneficial in your life, would you consider contributing monetarily to our podcast? If you believe in what we do, I would also cherish your prayers as well as consider giving to the cause. I want to shout out my gratitude to the multiple donors who already have made this commitment to support the podcast financially. Without you, it would not be possible to reach as many people with the messages we do, or anyone who needs to be reminded that hope is real. So thank you so much in advance and until next time, remember you are loved.
