A Big Dose of Hope

Pretty much everyone could use a good dose of hope, don’t you think?

Yesterday we launched a new satellite campus at Crossline Church.  After the service I happened to run into a darling gal who had just attended the service.  “I’m so glad your church has come to our community!”  She went on to explain,  “it gives me hope, and right now, in the midst of raising two small children and struggling to figure out how to keep our marriage happy, I’m desperate for some hope, and most of my friends are, too.”

Her words stuck with me.  Or rather her one word: hope.

Most people can keep trudging through even the most difficult of circumstances as long as they have hope, but take away hope and despair presses in, squeezing out any glimmer of better days. It’s a desperate scene, a life without hope.

Lack of hope causes wives to call in quits, moms to resign themselves to “just the way it is”, students to stop trying, girls from age five to eighty-five, to stop dreaming, and women in every state, every town and every street to live quiet lives of despair.

Maybe you’ve been struggling with a little bit of hopelessness lately…

This will never get better.

Things will always be this way.

I’m stuck.  We’re stuck.  We can’t do it anymore.

Listen to me, sweet friend. Only your enemy wants you to live without hope. The voice of God never speaks hopelessness into His children’s ear. That thought, that feeling, that dulled sense of positive expectation – none of it comes from God. Not even one teensy bit.

So call it what it is.  A lie.

You do have hope.

In fact, at its core, Easter is really all about hope; the hope of being completely loved.  The hope of a fresh start.  The hope of forgiveness.  The hope of purpose.  The hope of eternal life.  The hope of an abundant life now. The hope that God can take your mess and mold it into meaningful.

Hope – real hope—the kind that gets us through the highest highs and lowest lows, comes from one source. God, and God alone.

So today, if you’re in need of a big dose of hope, let me throw you a lifeline.  Let these words of scripture give you perspective, give you comfort, and most of all….

Give you HOPE.

I cried out, “I am slipping!”
    but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me.
 When doubts filled my mind,
    your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

(Psalm 94:18-19)

 

We are merely moving shadows,
    and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
    not knowing who will spend it.
 And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
    My only hope is in you.

(Psalm 39:6-7)

 

Why am I discouraged?
    Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
    I will praise him again—
    my Savior and my God!

(Psalm 42:5)

 

They plan to topple me from my high position.
    They delight in telling lies about me.
They praise me to my face
    but curse me in their hearts. 

 Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.

 

(Psalm 62:4-6)

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

(Jeremiah 29:11)