What is hope? According to Webster’s dictionary hope is defined as: ‘a feeling that what is wanted is likely to happen; desire accompanied by expectation…’ There are many people in this world today that are going through times of hopelessness and allow this to take them into a time of despair. Many have found difficult times, whether it be financially, physically, facing the unknown about certain situations such as employment, sickness and/or impending death of a loved one, etc., and it affects them health wise, mentally, and socially. Not only does it affect them, but it affects the ones around them and the ones they depend on most such as family and close friends.
No one is immune to this. At some point of time everyone is going to be faced with a period of hopelessness. It is up to you to overcome it and I have found that my prayer life increases dramatically when I have times such as these. Most of the time people will find out that when they get down it is a matter of negative thinking. Sir Winston Churchill once said, “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
The Holy Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 31:6; 'Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.' This was a time when Moses handed over the leadership of the Israelites to Joshua. He did not want them to lose hope or faith in our God. This still holds true for us today when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and allow Him to lead us through our difficult situations.
No one ever loses hope even if we say we do. Our expectations should always be to look forward to the future even though our present situation has a bleak outlook.
Harriet Beecher Stowe once said; “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Stowe was a writer in the 1800’s and the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
The feeling of hopelessness has been with us since the earliest days of life. It is nothing new. It is up to us on how we cope with it and overcome it. Well known motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar said that his biggest moments of “ahhas” was reading. He said that he wanted to put information in his mind that is going to be the most beneficial to him, his family and fellow man, financially, morally, spiritually and emotionally.
I have found this to be very true. I love to read and most of the time I am reading positive motivational material. I also like to write because it gives me a way to express my feelings and possibly share them with someone else. This puts my mind at ease and gives me the desire to put that little ‘extra’ into ‘extraordinary’. My favorite book is the Bible because God always has inspirational words for me to absorb into my mind. I firmly believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of God and I find direction for my life through reading it. It is my hope that anyone feeling down and out will get into God’s Word and find that life on earth is good, but the greater life awaits us with Him in Heaven.
Prayer: Thank you Jesus for you love, grace, and mercy. You are a good and gracious God. Amen.
