The Power of Hopeنموونە

Have you ever felt hopeless? 

Maybe that hopeless feeling came from a challenge you can’t seem to get past, a setback you didn’t see coming, or a hurt that you aren’t sure you can heal from. Whatever that thing is, it feels too big or too messy for you to fix. Which can leave you feeling more than a little helpless. And if that helpless feeling sticks around for too long, helplessness can easily become hopelessness. 

Unfortunately, for many people, hopelessness has become the default. After being disappointed, let down, and hurt so many times, it can be really tempting to just stop hoping. Because at least then we won’t be disappointed.

But what kind of life do we end up with when our primary motivation is to avoid disappointment? A life that feels really, really empty. A life that is so much less than the life we want to have and are meant to have. 

Even if you don’t feel it, see it, or believe it, there is hope for you. A hope that is so much more than an empty promise or another cheap idea. Our hope is a person. A person named Jesus, who is the God of everything.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. ... 1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV

There was a time when all of history was hurtling toward destruction. When everything seemed hopeless. But God, in the person of Jesus, intervened to bring hope and healing to our fallen (and falling) world. Through His sacrificial death on the cross and His miraculous resurrection from the dead, Jesus made a way for anyone and everyone to be made new, to be made whole, and to be a part of His mission of making every wrong thing right. 

Because of Jesus, we can have confidence that sin does not have the final say, that death has been defeated, and that even when life feels like hell, we can still have hope. Because in His great mercy, through the resurrection of Jesus, we have been invited into a relationship with the God of hope, and we have been given a gift that will never perish, spoil, or fade. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NIV