Confess and Declare 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Luke 4:18

With declarations of trust in God, I infuse hope into others. 

“I will say of the Lord, “he is my refuge and my fortress: My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalms 91:2

In the past, I have taken this verse and turned it into a personal declaration. I would say, “God, You are the One I trust. You are my refuge.” But it then hit me one day: the Psalmist chose that specific wording for a reason. We are supposed to confess and declare that He is the One we trust. This is important to speak out over our lives. In this verse these are actually confessions and declarations that we are meant to make to one another.    “I will say of the Lord.” We are to guard our tongues, speak life and hope to one another especially when times are difficult.

Both hopelessness and hope are contagious. We get to choose how infectious we want to be and with what we infect others. In Isaiah 35:4, it says “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, Be strong do not fear!”  

If someone is experiencing fear or struggling with hopelessness we don’t shame them. We can throw one another a lifeline by intentionally anchoring our hearts and words in hope. Words of life, confessed over one another have a deep impact. The very next verse in Isaiah explains the effect of the previous encouragement “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”  Isaiah 34:5

Intentional words, spoken over ourselves and one another, have the power to bring hope, strength, healing and supernatural courage. We declare what God has said and done instead of fueling an atmosphere of fear that tries to grip peoples hearts. In this way we hold up one another’s arms – as Aaron did for Moses- in the midst of the battle (see Exodus 27:12.)  We remind one another of who God is, what He has done and where our trust lies. With bold declarations of trust in God we infuse hope into one another.     Bill & Beni Johnson