Hope is Expecting the Best & Perservering Until You Get There (Monday Morning Devotion - Week 3)
Many of our Native brothers and sisters live without the hope. This lack of hope covers them with a darkness that infiltrates their whole life. (You can read more about it here.)
But before we are able to share the hope we have in Jesus, we need to understand exactly what we have, what it means, and how we live because of it.
Join us in these 6 weeks after Easter with “What is Hope?”
Need to start at the beginning? Read Week 1 here.
Read: Luke 1:39-56 & Lamentations 3:19-26
None of us have ever woken up and thought, “I hope I have a terrible day today.” We might expect to have a bad day or worry about having a bad day, but these emotions are not hope. Hope is believing God works all things for our good.
Note: there is a difference between having hope and having a wish. Wishing is an optimistic thought that doesn't require any action; hope is about trusting. Our hope is only as valuable as the person or thing in which we place it.
God cannot lie, so when He makes a promise we can be sure it will come true. Mary’s life was not always easy. She was about to be a pregnant, unwed young woman. She had no idea that 33 years later, she would witness her son’s crucifixion. And when Jesus died, Mary didn’t know He would come back to life. But seeing God’s faithfulness in the past is what gave her confidence that no matter her circumstances, she could put her hope in Him. That’s what gives us hope as well.
We’ve all watched a game where the outcome seemed to be inevitable. One team is losing so badly that it would take a miracle for them to win. But suddenly the game changer happens: The play no one expected turns the tide and gives the losing team team a renewed sense of hope.
That one play in that one game doesn’t just give us hope for that day, it changes our attitude toward every game after. The next time our team is struggling to make a comeback, we recall that game-changing moment and remind ourselves there’s still hope.
For Christians, salvation is the game changer. No matter what happens to us, we can always look back to the moment we asked Jesus into our lives and have hope knowing He saved us then and He will come through for us again.
No circumstance is too difficult for God to handle. There is nothing we’ve done wrong that He can’t make right. When we remember God’s past faithfulness, we can be reassured of His future provision.
Like the writer of Lamentations, we can look back at all God has done for us in the past and take hope in knowing that God won’t give up on us now. “[The Lord’s] compassions never fail. They are new every morning...” (Lamentations 3:22-23)
We aren’t just optimistic that the best is yet to come. Like Mary, we can have hope that the best is yet to come because our God says it is, and He always keeps His word.
(These devotions are based on: “Hope is” created by NewSpring Church)