Our Living Hope

Our Living Hope

I want to talk to you about hope. Hope is very real. We can feel it when we have it and we can sure feel it when it’s gone. The world is in desperate need of hope today. Have you been feeling hopeless lately?

I love this song that cries out to God for the hope we need.

Hope, hope, I need your hope

Down in this valley

Where the dark waters roll

Hope, hope, I need your hope

To meet me in the morning

And the evening so low

Sarah McMillan, Bright Wings

Uncertainty & Captivity = hopelessness

There are two basic situations that cause hopelessness : uncertainty & captivity: fear that things will change in ways that we don’t want & fear that things will not change in ways we do want. Both of these are so prevalent in our world today! Both the uncertainty about the future - will things only get worse? And captivity - feeling trapped & restricted - will it ever get better?

Watch this video for a message about Our Living Hope.

Feelings of hopelessness are most common in people whose days are lifeless, boring, idle and long (like lockdown). But they can also occur during busyness when life seems a treadmill of obligations & an endless rut of meaningless activity. Life has lost its satisfaction or sparkle. Like, “Since when did life become reduced to an endless chores, housework, cooking & cleaning up - eating and drinking and sleeping mixed in only with shopping, errands and doctors appointments??"

When the future looks no better… how do we sustain the light of hope in such times of darkness?

What is hope? We may define hope as: Looking forward with confidence and positive expectation that something good is going to happen to us. Hope helps us to live with unpredictability - when our future is uncertain or unclear, when options appear limited and possibilities diminish - hope helps us keep going with faith, peace & joy.

Hope is the anticipation of something that we really want to happen. And the faith to believe that it can and will happen.

Hoping Against all Hope

Abraham hoped against all hope; and still believed that what God had said would come to pass.

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead." (Romans 4:18-19)

Hoping vs Wishing

Hoping and wishing are not the same thing. Wishing is passive. We wish but we never really think or imagine it could happen. Like, “I know this couldn't happen in a million years, but....

“I wish I had a million dollars.”

“I wish I could lose 20 pounds.”

“I wish I was married,”

“I wish I wasn’t married,” lol

Hoping is actively waiting and believing for what we desire to manifest.

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 King James Version (KJV)