Give Them Hope

I’ve thought long and hard about it. 

I have spent hours on my knees asking the Father, “God, what is it that people need the very most?  Father, I ask You to give me focus and purpose as I minister to the lives of those with whom I have been entrusted.  Show me, Jesus, what I have the capability of depositing into their empty, hurting hearts.”

And the answer comes quietly but certainly.

Hope.  You can give them hope.

It is an uncomplicated, but extraordinary 4-letter word.

Hope. The entire world lives in a vacuum of hopelessness.

Hope has the power to renew vision … to strengthen a weary soul … and to restore a broken heart.

I hear it again, “Give them hope.”

Hope provides a tenacity of purpose … an excitement for tomorrow … and a view of God that is incomparable.

Hope. What the world needs now is a solid and resilient dose of hope.

Hope … sweet, sweet hope.

Your calling, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to instill hope into the hardest of hearts and into the weakened souls that God has placed within your reach.

“Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in speech.” – II Corinthians 3:12

Moms are hungry for hope … businessmen are ravenous for hope … politicians are desperate for hope.

College students are thirsty for hope … widows and widowers are grasping for hope … teen-agers need a breath of fresh hope.

Divorced people yearn for hope … parents ache for hope … and the media is clawing for a single word of hope.

When life beats up an innocent person … tosses that ravaged person to and fro … and then violently robs the mauled piece of humanity of all of their deepest dreams and highest goals … all that this bruised shell of personhood actually wishes for is to be able to hope again. 

What this devastated life yearns for is to breathe out despair and to breathe in hope.

The simple desire of a broken person is to smell a slice of hope again. Even the unforgettable aroma of hope is life-changing, isn’t it?

And what does hope smell like?  Where is it found?

Hope is conceived in thanksgiving … it grows in the petri dish of a simple song … and it blossoms in the warmth of relationship.

Hope strengthens when regret diminishes.  Hope emboldens itself when the embers of disappointment are allowed to die out.

“And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also are you sharers of our comfort.” – II Corinthians 1:7

What is hope?  Is it possible to describe hope in its rawest and most simple of forms?

Hope is simply choosing to believe that the goodness of God will intervene in your circumstances.

Hope is the full and unshakable knowledge that God will always be Victor.  He is Victor, indeed!

Hope is the enthusiastic and celebrated anticipation that God’s loving kindness and grace will determine the outcome of your life.

Hope is the firm assurance that we, His beloved children, are so much more than conquerors through Him Who loves us.

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us!” – Romans 8:37

Hope is the sweet commitment that nothing … absolutely nothing … is able to separate anyone of us from the love of God.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created things will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  - Romans 8:38 & 39

And hope is discovered in an overwhelming peace knowing that joy can surely be found in His presence.

“In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:11

Hope doesn’t come from money … from health … from houses … from stuff … from vacations … from pedicures … from promotions … from education … from cars … from exercise … from entertainment … or from politics.

Hope comes from Him.  All the hope that you will ever need to get your life back on track again comes from Him.

Jesus.  He is enough.  He is more than enough to deliver hope.

“ … He on Whom we have set our hope.  And He will yet deliver us.” – II Corinthians 1:10b.

Hope.

Barren women need hope.

Unemployed men need hope.

Rejected women need hope.

Stressed out men need hope.

Disappointed women need hope.

Bullied teen-agers need hope.

Lonely women need hope.

Brides need hope and grooms need hope.

Anxious college students need hope.

Pompous politicians need hope.

Grieving women need hope.

And you are just the person to give it to them!

If you know Jesus … you know hope.  If you have Jesus … you have hope.

If you have hope … you can share it.  You can give it.  You can spread it.

I have determined that under my watch, every person with whom I connect will be pointed toward hope. 

I believe that it is vital to steer people away from an emotional avalanche of despair and a flood of negativity.  The power in personal relationship is found when people, young and old, are gently but firmly led toward the God of all hope.

Hope is all I have to offer.  The healing, protective, life-giving hope of Jesus Christ is at the heart and center of all true ministry and at the core of all sincere relationships.  Absolutely nothing else will ever do.

“Now may the God of hope fill you all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13

As always, thanks for listening to my heart. It’s not a perfect heart … but it is a heart that is enthusiastically chasing after God and all that He is!