#AlwaysHope
Hope. It’s something I’m really into. I started just relying on hope a long time ago when I realized there are just some things a person can’t give up on. Oh, and that as a child of God, it was probably one of the greatest invention of His. Something to get us through the tough spots, to brighten a moment of fear or anxiety, to help me pick myself up when the disappointment sucked the life right out of the room.
It’s a good thing to have. You should work on grabbing some. There’s an endless supply, and it makes it possible to live through the struggle. And we all know the struggle is real.
This post is inspired by an encouraging note I receive every week from Brene Brown and COURAGEworks. I’ll talk more about her and her research and writings at another time, but with each encouragement, I always like to turn my focus from another person onto Jesus and His Word.
He speaks truth about Hope over and over again, and ultimately the reason Jesus came was to give us hope… not in stuff here on earth, but in His presence with us and our lives that can be lived eternally with Him, away from the hurt and struggle of this life.
So if you need a dose of hope today, listen to these words…
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. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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 5:2-5
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! Psalm 31:24
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. … Psalm 23:1-6
So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain… Hebrews 6: 18-19
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints… Ephesians 1:18
Have hope!