Hope

Could I write on hope? It has been a theme of my life since I was a child. Always hoping, always looking forward, and always praying for things to come true. We don’t always get what we hope for, but sometimes we do. It is because of those sometimes that I keep on hoping and trying and wishing and praying.

I hope for great things and I hope for small things. Even now I can feel my heart beating, wanting and hoping. It wants so much to come to pass it feels as though it could beat right out of me and keep on beating for a minute straight on it’s own as it lay on the floor.

Romans 5 says “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

This is where we have to stand and this is where we must believe: hope does not disappoint, because God has poured out His love into our hearts… hope does not disappoint.

What do you hope for? What does it mean to hope, anyway? In the very least, when we hope, we can know that we are not alone. Ruth hoped for a new future back in Israel, multiple occasions throughout history the Israelites hoped to return to Jerusalem, Esther hoped for salvation for her people and Job hoped for deliverance from the Hand of the Lord.

To hope is to have the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. To hope is to look forward with desire or reasonable confidence. To hope is to believe, it is to desire, it is to trust. Sometimes, we can even hope against hope… this is to continue to hope, even when the odds are against our favor.

Hope is a powerful emotion. Hope has kept people alive in prison camps, and hope has kept starving people from giving up who were lost at sea. Hope has reunited old friendships and Hope has rekindled flames of love that had been relegated to faint flickers.

We must continue to hope. Hope is the opposite of passivity. Hope is the antithesis of apathy. Hope is how we keep on going. Hope is strength when there only weakness, hope is love when there are only lonely nights, hope is fighting when the mobs have already surrounded, and hope is the next step when we’re lost in the wilderness. Hope is how to really live.

Hope is how you say to life, “I will not give up, and I will not give in.” Hope is the reason you get back up when you have been knocked down. Hope is the reservoir to draw from when the ship has already taken on water. Hope is where we look to when the alarm clock sounds in the morning and a new day calls, beckoning us to get up. We can either charge the day or flee from it. We must hope! Even when all we can do is hope against hope…

Hope! Keep hoping! Look to hope as a mighty warrior, look to hope as a trusted companion, and look to hope as a faithful friend. Remember, hope does not disappoint. Hope, when coupled with prayer and faith can bring even greater things to pass. This is when we bring our hopes before the King of Kings and lay them before His feet.

This is when we take the deep desires of our heats and the great wishes and prayers and hopes and dreams and say to Jesus; “Oh King of My heart and oh Lord of my life. Here are my hopes, here are my dreams, and here is what I want so deeply to come to pass. Would You have them? Would You take them? I don’t know what else to do. To my knowledge, these are noble hopes. As far as I can see, what I lay before You are good things. And even though I call them good and want them to be, I still bow my knee and say ‘Thy will be done’. Thank You Father, for I know that You are good and I now rest in Your love. Be pleased now Oh King. Come and have Your way.”

Keep hoping. Keep believing. Keep going.