“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12

Keys to Hope

When we face trials, suffering, hard times—in order to grow in our intimacy with Him in the midst of them and not take up any offense against God—one of the things that I have found to be so important is to keep hope alive. “Without hope/vision, the people perish.”

I’ve found that I can make choices to keep hope alive—but, ultimately, I need God’s grace, strength and help. He has always helped me in my weakness to keep hope in my heart. In my lowest moments, in the times when life itself was draining from my body because of rigorous treatment for my cancer, I sensed God pouring hope into my heart. About 30 or so years ago, I read a phrase that has stuck with me. “The ladder of hope has nothing to stand on here below—it is held from up above.”* Any and all hope we have is from our wonderful Father.

Hope can sound like a soft or weak word. People sometimes say “I hope so” without much strength of conviction! But hope is one of the strongest things we can have in our hearts. If you talk to people who have gone through hard times, they’ll always mention that they had hope for better times. The strength of hope kept them going. I think that one of the purposes of trials and sufferings is to produce hope in our hearts, not to diminish it or destroy it. In hard times, there is no middle ground. We press into God and come to a place of hope—or our hearts become hardened because of the trials.

Over the years I’ve found some key ingredients that I must have in my life in order to maintain hope.

My hope must be rooted in who God is,in His character.  As we spend time with Him, speak out our trust, worship Him, spend time in the Word…then hope grows in our hearts.

I must have a heart of expectancy for hope to thrive in my heart. Faith believes that God can do something; hope expects that He will. If hopelessness enters into our hearts, thankfully it’s not a terminal disease. God can help us cast it aside and start afresh with new hope, new expectancy.

Hope is closely linked with prayer. It’s in the place of prayer that hope can be rekindled. God can remove the unbelief from our hearts and help it to burn bright again as we spend time with Him.

Hope needs to be coupled with joy. If we have expectancy in our hearts for something, it will be joyful. You don’t think of hope as having a sad face. It’s not flippant, it’s not a false spirituality. It faces trials, but remains joyful because of being grounded in God. We know He’s sovereign, faithful, doesn’t go on strike or quit.

Hope needs patience. This is the hard point! There are delays in seeing our hope fulfilled. Setbacks come along. We get discouraged. I’ve learned that my sense of timing in seeing a hope fulfilled is very different from the Lord’s. Patient hope doesn’t give God a deadline. His timing is perfect. He knows what He’s doing.

Hope must persevere and endure.In our day of “instant” everything, hope doesn’t give up or give in. God uses the situations in our lives to teach us perseverance. He stretches us and grows us through each trial we face.

In the midst of the global pandemic, we need HOPE! We must keep hope alive. And, most of all, we must remember that God is always good and faithful! He is our hope.

 May our hope in You grow as we walk through hard times. Amen.

*Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search For Meaning. Boston : Beacon Press, 2006.