Hope in God

If I learned one thing over the last year, it's been to hope in God. Perhaps I didn't know I learned that until a couple of months ago. I don't think I could see myself, feel myself hoping in God. I just knew that each day shed a little more light on my sin and lead me a little closer to God. I knew that if He brought me to a hard situation, He would indeed bring me through the hard situation. Mostly, I knew that, without any doubt, my God would never leave me and was doing His absolute best in me and for me.

So I started studying hope yesterday. I wanted to embrace all that it meant and could mean. I've been looking up meanings and verses. I've been downloading sermons and reading articles. Yet, I'm still at a loss to truly grasp the fullness of hope.

I want desperately to be able to put this small word into a category and define it with meaningful and powerful words. I want hope to take on a life of it's own, so that I may explain it to you...to me. I can't. It won't. I realized that hope isn't just a topic. Hope isn't just a feeling or a emotion. Hope is a life long journey. Hope can grab you by the straps and send you into things you didn't know existed. Hope can bring you quietly to your knees in honest prayer. Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope is the shiny crystal in a bed of gravel, the burst of color on a cloudy day.

Hope means, in Hebrew, to "wait with expectations". It signifies a "waiting attitude" and relates closely to the words TRUST and EXPECT. Hope for the cure, Hope for health, Hope for healing. Hope for a better day, hope for a clean heart, Hope in God.

In scripture, hope is a powerful word:
"For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes in what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." Romans 8:24-25

"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast..." Hebrews 6:19

"The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him." Lam 3:24

"Why are you in despair O my soul? Any why are you disturbed within me? HOPE IN GOD, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God." Psalm 43:5

Someday, again, soon...I will praise Him. My soul! Hope in God. He is the One to pull you through. Hope isn't just a word, it's a characteristic of God Himself.

Has the Lord given you a situation, hard or not, to learn to Hope in Him? May you learn to embrace the fullness of hope admist whatever situation you're in. Hope in God!