Hope

God created us to be filled with hope.  The Bible contains words about hope on practically every page.  Have you ever noticed that hope is the first thing to disappear and the hardest thing to hold on to?  I have to choose every single day...sometimes every single minute...to hold on to my hope.  Last year, I didn't do so well.  I let fear, doubt, discouragement, hurt, and isolation steal my hope and block out the light of Jesus.  Without hope, it is a dark, scary world out there.  The Bible says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)  I have felt heartsick with hopelessness.  I have seen people around me without hope and light.  The hopelessness hole is a hard place to be trapped and difficult to climb out of...I've been there many times!

Thankfully, Jesus came not only to bring eternal life to us, but also to fill us with hope while we are in this life through relationship with Him.  One of the best ways for me to renew my hope is to read verses filled with promises. 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future.  (Jeremiah 29:11...one of my all time favorites!)

Be joyful in HOPE, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  (Romans 12:12)

May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 15:13...Paul prayed that for the Romans, and I pray it for you!)

Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your HOPE in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God!  (Psalm 43:5...we have to choose to put our hope in God...it isn't always an easy choice.)

Be strong and take heart all you who HOPE in the Lord!  (Psalm 31:24)

I am choosing to HOPE in the Lord, not in my circumstances or in the situations or people in my life.  I pray that the God of hope will fill us with all joy and peace and that we will OVERFLOW with hope!