Your Marriage, Your Future, and a Holy Imagination: A 5-Day Reading PlanSample

Day 1: Focus on Hope

In our time ministering to other couples, time and time again we have seen men and women who had faced impossible situations overcome them due to one driving attribute: hope. They had hope in the unfailing, all-powerful, ever-present God they served, even when their present circumstances provided them very little reason for optimism.

Scripture is full of people who trusted in God despite their bleak situations. For example, Daniel was delivered from the lion’s den (Daniel 6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged untouched from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). In her eponymous book of the Bible, Esther was positioned by God to boldly go before the king to help bring about deliverance for the Jews. There are so many more examples we could name, but the common factor among these heroes of Scripture is how they followed God’s commands and trusted Him in faith. They did as much as they could, then let God answer their faithfulness with miracles.

In the depths of our struggles, we find solace in the hope provided by God. Psalm 42:11 reminds us to put our hope in God, the source of comfort and compassion. Romans 15:13 encourages us to trust in God's power to fill us with hope. The promise in Jeremiah 29:11 that God has plans to prosper us and give us hope for the future becomes our anchor in challenging times. Drawing strength from these scriptures, we trust God to guide us through difficulties, providing comfort and renewing our relationships.

The lives and circumstances of people in the Bible can seem so distant and different from ours that it can be hard to relate to them. However, the emotional and mental anguish through which they persevered is captured in the Word of God as a source of vision and inspiration for us. Because they had hope, you and I can as well.

Reflect

What can hope do that pessimism cannot? On a practical level, what does it mean to have faith and hope in God’s promises to make all things new?

Prayer

Dear God, I am feeling hopeless and lost. Please remind me that You are with me and will never leave me. Then fill my heart with hope for the future so I may have the strength to endure another day.