And hope does not disappoint…

I am thankful for ‘hope’.

Hope that there is a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.  Hope that current circumstances will change.  Hope that God will change me on the inside so I stop being so hard on myself.  Hope that God will free me from living under a subconscious set of obligations.  Hope that things will get better, that I will feel better, that there is freedom in this life, that salvation does not stop but continues in my heart each and every day.

A human being can endure a lot if they possess hope.  There is something in ‘hoping’ that gives a person strength to persevere and endure.  Without hope, what strength/what reason would a person have to not just give up… on everything?

I know for a fact that if I did not have hope when I was a widow things would have been a lot worse for me and my children.  Among other things it was the hope that God loved us in the midst of our loss and that He would care for us that gave me strength to keep going when I felt I had no strength left.  I didn’t suffer from depression.  My doctor gave me medication to take if I felt anxious or overwhelmed – I think I took it only once.  I have hope that even though my first husband is gone from this earth I will see him again and my boys will see him again too.

I think there’s a reason that ‘hope’ is one of the three things that remain in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love…”).

Here’s just two more passages referencing ‘hope’ (there are 72 passages with the word ‘hope’ in the New Testament alone – NET translation):

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.” (emphasis mine)

Romans 5:3-5 “…we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (emphasis mine)

What a precious gift ‘hope’ is!