HOPE (Anne Englert)

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?                      
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.   (Psalm 42:5)

Spera in Deo (Hope in God) is the motto of the college my daughter Heather attended: Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  Their emblem is an anchor, and that image comes from another Bible verse: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:19)  Hope in God can really ground us, particularly when the waves and winds and storms of life throw us off course or threaten to overwhelm us with their havoc.  How have you experienced the power or comfort of hope?

Quite a few Scripture verses that use the word hope have action words associated with it.
“...take hold of the hope set before us”
“...strongly encouraged to seize the hope”
“...new birth into a living hope”
“...hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering”
“...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”
“...work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope”
It seems like hope is not something to be passive about.

Whether or not we put our hope in God, God’s word, God’s steadfast love, is up to us.  Instead of hope, we can choose or drift into dejection, negativity, distrust, pessimism, gloom, or despair.  Instead of in God, we can put our hope--our confident expectation and trust--in our own plans, in accumulation of wealth, in our preferred political party, in a growing economy, in fallible human beings, in wishful thinking, or in any number of inferior things.

Are you a person of hope?  I believe that is what God wants us to be.  As the psalmist says, our source of hope is God’s word (Psalm 119:114 NLT).  Let’s consider these Scriptures:

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope.  (Romans 15:4)

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31 NIV)

We can revive our hope by reading Scripture, where we get to know the God of hope whose wisdom is magnificent and whose steadfast love for us is never-ending.

We can sing our hope in songs like this classic hymn: My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

Here are some personal prayers of hope from the book of Psalms:
You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. (119:14)
I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more. (71:14)
I rise before dawn and cry for help; I put my hope in your words. (119:147)
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. (33:22)