The Innovation Mix

My verse all summer has been Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer." I'm not good at memorizing so I love verses like this. They are short and have 3 things!


Anyway, this has been a key verse for me because of its implications to ministry and innovation. Let me break it down for you:


1. Joyful in hope: An innovator has to be joyful. This is key because there are so many challenges and half steps in innovation work. I can guarantee you will struggle if you are depending on your own strength. But if you rely on hope in Christ, you can overcome the great obstacles that you will encounter. It is because of the hope we have that we can see beyond challenges to the big goal in front of us. That big goal is your innovation that God has set before you.

2. Patient in Affliction: When you suffer in the innovation process, be patient. So many times we demand that things be set right immediately or fixed quickly. But I have witnessed that in the pain of struggle to accomplish an innovation God will provide new opportunities and ideas that I would never have had if the pain had been avoided. Pain is an important part of what God uses to refine our ideas and our vision.

3. Faithful in Prayer: Hope is impossible to attain and Affliction is impossible to overcome without prayer. Prayer is how God keeps us steady and reassures us in our work. We tend to wander in our thinking and in our emotions but prayer brings us back to the core and reminds us of what God has put in our hearts. If we seek Him in prayer, God will not let us loose site of the vision He has given us.

I know that many of you are struggling today. You are discouraged, tired, out of ideas, questioning . . .

This verse in Romans is for you! Be encouraged.

Are you ready to innovate?

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:13

Does the Bible have anything to say about being innovative? I think there are several places, but I would like to share the above verse with you and make some connections for you to consider. In this verse Peter is challenging people to be holy. Holiness is a focus on Christ that results in acting Christ-like.

Innovation isn't so much about genius. It has more to do with perspective. Are you ready to see things differently? Are you ready to act on what you see? The more I work on new ideas, the more I am convinced that innovation in God's kingdom is a question of Christ-like obedience. God is the ultimate innovator. He will do the most creative mind-boggling things to bring people to Himself. If that is true, then He is always giving us opportunities to innovate - but are we listening?

So lets break down this verse:

prepare your minds for action: This speaks of the fertile ground that will produce innovation. If your mind is prepared to act on what God gives you, then you will be an innovator. But if you do not prepare your mind for action, then there will be a million reasons why you will not be obedient and turn down the opportunity to innovate.

be self-controlled: Living a life that is self-controlled puts you in a position to be obedient. If you are reading, proactively looking at your time, studying the Bible, engaged in your community, then you will have the lifestyle that allows you to be innovative. People who cannot manage their time and efforts, find very little opportunity to make a difference.

set your hope fully on the grace: Instead of looking back and wondering about what you could have done, this verse focuses you forward. It calls us to set our hope on what Jesus has done and is doing for us through his grace and love. As I have shared before, Hope Expects Good! That means that we are called to expect good from God and look forward to what He has done for us. Forward motion allows us to build speed around new ideas and key projects.

Are you ready to step out in obedience and innovate?

Hope Expects Good

Dean Merrill wrote in The God Who Won’t Let Go, “Hope is actually very close to fear. Fear looks at a set of grim prospects and says ‘It might fail.’ Hope looks at the same set of grim prospects . . . and says, ‘It might work.’ Hope and fear are thus like two ships passing in the night but headed in opposite directions. They are at the same dark murky point in the ocean. But by morning they will be miles apart.” (p. 23-24)

Mindy found a definition of hope that is very simple: Hope expects good. I love it because it is so easy to apply. When you wake up in the morning do you expect good or evil? Is hope guiding your life or is fear?

Lets apply this to innovation. The innovator is a person who has learned to hope. They expect good out of every new project, strategy, line of investigation. Hopefully they are realists, but that doesn't stop them from having an attitude defined by hope.

What does it mean for you if you live expecting good?
1. You see opportunities when others see brick walls.
2. You give people a second, third, fourth chance when others wouldn't.
3. You probably smile a bit more.
4. You have a determination and persistence that allows you to persevere through major challenges.
5. You are close to the Father's heart - that is how He sees each of us.

So as you read this, are you expecting good from your day or evil? Is your work being defined by hope or by fear?

I pray that it is by hope - the hope that comes from the heart of God.