I think our world could use a little hope these days, don’t you? With all the wars and threats of wars, the economic woes, the pandemics and violence, people are looking for answers. We all need someone or something to rely on.
No matter how independent-minded people are, deep down, they are depending on something whether it be their good looks, personality, job, financial portfolio, education, a special friend, spouse, parent, sibling or even a government official. Look at all the people who believe the president will fix all their problems. When that something or someone comes through for them, they feel happy and at peace. When it doesn’t, they get depressed and feel anxious.
Hope is such an important thing to have. It is oxygen for the soul. Without hope, our souls will shrivel up and die, our sails will falter and our ship will float listlessly on a stagnant sea. In order to function, to move forward, we need hope to fill our sails—we need to put our hope in something. But ultimately anything and anyone in this world will eventually let us down. It is inevitable. When that happens, people either become seriously depressed or they find something or someone else to hope in.
God’s word has much to say about hope. But for hope to be true hope, for it to serve its purpose in our hearts, our hope must be in Someone who will never let us down, Someone who will come through for us 100 percent of the time, forever. That means that this Person must be incapable of lying or going back on a promise or forgetting about us. This must be a Person who is completely faithful! Guess what: we are in luck, because such a being exists, and He is God.
He can never tell a lie (Numbers 23:19).
He cannot go back on a promise (Isaiah 55:11).
He will never forget you or leave you (Hebrews 13:5).
He wants only the best for you (Jeremiah 29:11).
He loves you as a Father loves an only child (1 John 3:1).
No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame (Psalm 25:3 NIV).
But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me (Micah 7:7 NIV).
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4 NIV).
God wants you to have hope. He knows how important it is. So, whatever you’re facing today, speak to God about it, read the Bible and ask Him to show His faithfulness through His Word and to give you hope in your heart. God will come through for you. (It may not be in the time or the way you asked Him to, but He will!) He can’t do anything less. Did you hear that? He cannot do anything less because then He wouldn’t be God. So, stop wallowing in the doldrums, hoist those sails and start soaring with the eagles!
But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31 NIV).
MaryLu Tyndall