What Is Hope?

May 17, 2020

From the Pastors Desk:

Hope – is a well grounded and confident expectation of who God is.

Illustration:

A woman that had boarded a plane to visit family struggled to wedge her suitcase into the tight overhead bin. Eventually triumphantly closing the door and taking her seat. When the plane landed, she got up opened the bin and found her suitcase was struck so she began yanking and tugging. The suitcase didn’t budge. A man asked if he could help, and she replied, “It’ll come. I got it in, there has to be a way to get it out.”

Her calmness and confidence inspired me as I watched. She just knew it was coming out of there. She showed such a resilience as she put her hands on her hips and though about it. Then she began again to dislodge the suitcase which she did after about 10 minutes and most everyone was off the plane. Resilience is the ability to adapt to challenging, stressful or upsetting circumstances, recovering enough to regroup, refocus and find ways back into a positive frame of mind.

The woman’s reaction to her stuck luggage was a beautiful example of one of the American Psychological Association’s tips for cultivating resilience: “Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems.”

Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

-Our belief, faith and hope in God the Father, Jesus the Christ and the Holy Ghost offers us that Joy that says all things will work together for good to those that love the lord.

It’s going to work out alright so let go, relax, do what you can and let God. It may not work out our way but it will work out Gods way. So we should be happier with Gods way even if it isn’t my way.

Author and TV evangelist, Robert Schuler, wrote, “Let your hopes, not your hurts (fears, disappointment, set backs and negatives), shape your future.”

It helps to think about what is normal for others when I have to deal with something that is not-normal for me.

It was normal for the Israelite in the wilderness to have sand in their shoes, to eat manna three times a day, to deal with sweltering heat and lack of water for drinking and washing. If you offered me that kind of "opportunity" to follow God, I would probably be in shock.

Still, those were the circumstances in which Israel was expected to draw closer to the Lord and to learn to follow His ways. 

It's a sobering thought: when life hands us irritations and inconveniences, sorrows and difficulties, do we see them as paths that lead us to God? Or do we merely perceive them as disappointments that draw us away from the way we think life "should" be?

Our Prayer:

Lord, please help us to embrace the problems of this world with hope and faith; grant us peace and well-being.