When I was a kid, I loved to get the Scholastic book order newspaper from school.  I loved to read, and my mom would usually order a few books for me and my sisters.  Probably around third grade, I remember getting a little book that had verses and rhymes to write in people’s autograph books.  I read it so much that I memorized some of the sayings.  Some were serious, and some funny.  One I remember is:

“It’s hard to lose a friend when your heart is full of hope,

But it’s worse to lose a towel when your eyes are full of soap!”

Now it would be bad to be in this situation, but it is easily remedied.  It’s not always so easy to remedy a situation where we have lost hope. Hope is a vital quality to have in our lives, and it’s hard when we lose it.  So many things can happen to make us lose hope:  pain, suffering, loss, and we can find ourselves down and discouraged.

Sometimes we know when people are going through a hard time. It’s obvious because of the loss of a loved one or a serious illness.  But sometimes people go through hard times, and it’s a private thing, something others don’t or can’t know about, and something that causes discouragement or hopelessness for a person.

But God—we know that God knows everything that is going on in our lives, even if we can’t share with others, and He is the source of hope for us as a Christian.

God’s promises— are like a check, made out to us, that we can draw on when we need them.

Catherine Martin defines hope as: (HOPE) Holding on with Patient Expectation. What are we holding on to? We need to be holding on to God and his promises. And there are many of those in God’s word. How do we hold on? 

Patiently—this not always easy to do.

With expectation—we know God is able, and He will answer in the best way for us.  Sometimes we forget that, and we worry and fret because we aren’t sure God will actually do this. 

Both the Old Testament and New Testament talk about hope.

Psalm 31:24 tells us, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”

Psalm 39:7 says, “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.”

Psalm 42:5 asks us, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”

The Psalms are full of promises of God’s hope.

Lamentations 3:24 reminds us, “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore I will hope in him.” Verse 26 continues, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”

In the New Testament we have many promises relating to hope.

Romans 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

God is the God of all hope, and he can fill us with joy, and with peace, as we believe His promises, so that we abound in hope, and this happens through the power of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit within us. 

What do you need from God today?  We know John Newton as the writer of the hymn, Amazing Grace.  He actually wrote many songs, and even had his own hymn book.  One of his songs (to the tune of Take my Life and Let it Be) goes like this:

“Thou art coming to a King

Large petitions with thee bring

For His power and grace are such

None can ever ask too much!”

Do you need hope today for a situation you are facing? We serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Don’t be afraid to ask big things of God—we can never ask too much!

-Pam