Hope. Without it we die emotionally… spiritually… and physically. Those who’ve lost all hope become depressed, sometimes clinically. The who have hope, or are hopeful, flourish in difficult circumstances. Those who have hope are able to persevere through the harshest events of life. Those who put their hope in the wrong things eventually become hopeless.
The big question is where hope is placed. Hope can be tied to: Intellect… Reputation… Financial Security… Family… Spouse… Possessions… Power… Influence… Children… Friends… or any of 10,000 things. The only problem is that hope in all/any of those sets us up for devastation. How? They all eventually fail us.
Hope is what the parent has that their child will be healed. Hope is what the spouse has for a troubled marriage. Hope is what the single person has that they will marry. Hope is what the poor have that they’ll eat. Hope is what the sick has for healing. Hope is what the sinner has regarding forgiveness. Hope, in each case, is what helps a person to keep on keeping on. Consider…
Romans 5:1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Note a few things in these Scriptures. Hope is FROM God… THROUGH Jesus Christ… BY the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus the hope that does not disappoint is a gift from God in the Trinitarian form. The endurance to live by hope is the result of saturating ourselves in the Scripture.
Are you struggling? Consider what is found in the Scriptures above…