Hope

Hope- I just love that word.  As soon as I hear it something deep inside me feels refreshed, like an ice cold drink of water after a hot day of gardening.  According to the Hought Mifflin dictionary the definition of hope as a verb is:

1. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
2. Archaic To have confidence; trust.

Now I would bet that we all have hopes and dreams, for ourselves and for our children.  We hope for good health, we hope our children will be successful, hey we hope we will be successful!  We hope for everyday miracles:  I hope this dress will fit, I hope the check comes in the mail today, I hope so and so doesn’t stop by today…  Well you get the picture! 

It is funny the strength you can get from hope.  When I was younger and really struggling with life I had a huge hope.  I had a hope for rising above the circumstances I found myself in.  Travis Tritt had a song that I would sing with all my heart and at the top of my lungs, “I’m gonna be somebody.  One of these days I’m gonna break these chains.  Yeah, I’m gonna be somebody someday, you can bet your bottom dollar I will….”  Even now as I write out the words to that song I can feel my heart pounding with anticipation.  Isn’t that what hope does?  It gives us something to look forward to.  If you have ever felt like you were in a hopeless situation and then found something to hope for, you understand the power of hope. 

Awhile back I was in a situation that seemed hopeless, no matter which way I looked there seemed to be no solution, no sign of rescue or release.  I struggled for days, even weeks with this feeling of hopelessness.  Every area of my life was affected: my relationship with my husband and kids suffered, my desire to get out of bed in the morning was vacant, my joy was AWOL, and most of all my prayer life was empty.  It is hard to pray when your heart is so full of hurt and so empty of hope.  Then God brought a verse to mind that I had memorized as a youth.  It comes from Psalm 20 verse 7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord God.”  You see, when we are feeling hopeless, the truth is we have to put our hope in the wrong thing.  We have taken our focus off of God, who is our hope, and placed in on chariots and horses, or friends and family, or circumstances and events.  When we place our trust, our hope in Christ, we will NEVER be disappointed.  Things may not always go the way we would like but we will have assurance that God is in control and we are in His hands.  No matter what, if we have a relationship with Christ, we always have the hope of better things to come.  Though things on earth often leave us feeling hopeless, we know that it will all pass away and we can look forward to eternity in Heaven with our Creator!  So in the words on Third Days song My Hope is in You, “My hope is in You/ Show me Your ways/ Guide me in truth/ In all my days/ My hope is in You”