Shine Like Stars: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

An Attitude That Shines: God's stars are hopeful

People hope for all kinds of things--championships for their favorite sports teams, a huge lottery win, a big promotion, great weather, and rising stock prices. Sometimes those things happen. Often they do not. Our hoping for them does nothing to make them happen.

God invites his all-star team to be hopeful. That doesn't mean to wish on a star. It means to be utterly convinced that our future will be better than the past. It means that we can be optimists, since God lives in our future already and is making things better for us right now.

Here's  his promise to you: "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all" (Psalm 34:19). Here's the beauty of it--it's not our doing. It's God's. We can bear anything because we know everything in our lives will get better in the future. We hope that. We know that.