Put Your Hope in God

What do we hoping for? A job with a better salary? Success in Business? Happy marriage or something else? We use the term “hope” to refer to pipe dreams, wishful thinking, fantasies, and the like, but very few of us actually understand what true “hope” is. The American Heritage Dictionary defines hope as “a wish or desire supported by some confidence of its fulfillment.” Hope from a Biblical perspective is exactly that a belief grounded in faith and based upon the promises of a God who never lies and who always keeps His word.

Romans 5:3-5 says, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love in our hearts.” Hope enables people to keep going long after they think they can because it holds promise of better days and brighter horizons. Ecclesiastes 9:4 states, “Anyone who is among the living has hope–even a live dog is better off than a dead lion.” In other words, if we are still breathing, there is hope for us. No matter what we have done or what we are going through God promises hope is available to us because of three unchangeable truths from the Bible.

First, God is a God of second chances, forgiveness, and redemption. It is never too late to get right with the Lord because He is always ready to transform whatever we give Him into something usable. Psalm 103: 10 says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve   or repay us according to our iniquities.” and in the verse 12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Secondly, God has the power to make all things new, even us. Lamentations 3:22-23, says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” continued in verse 25: “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him” God offers us a new beginning every day. Take Him up on His offer.

Finally, God never withholds what is good from us, so we can have hope that He will provide what we need and sustain us through trials. Psalm 34:10 says, “Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” God always has our best interest in mind so we can trust that He will bring about what He has promised and that His plan will ultimately satisfy our every desire.

The devil wants to keep us in bondage to fear and dread which lead to discouragement, despair, and depression. But the “God of hope wants to fill you with all joy and peace as you trust Him, so that you may overflow with hope” (Romans 15:13). When the Psalmist was distraught, he cried out, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:5). He knew the remedy for discouragement look expectantly to the Lord for deliverance and trust that He is fully capable of bringing it to pass. May the hope of our Lord be with us today and remind all of us that in all things we are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:37). Amen

 Karina