Hope!

The Lexham Bible Dictionary defines hope this way:

Hope The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future

 Ben Craver, “Hope,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

This definition helps us recognize that our hope rests with placing God at the center of our human responses to the present and the future. Without God at the center, we falter about hoping that our circumstances will fall in line with our expectations. What we must consider however, when God is at the center, we have to place our expectations in HIs hands, for He usually surprises us with something even better than we could hope for or imagine.

Having hope is an essential need in our lives. Without it, going through difficult seasons and desert experiences would be almost unbearable. Hope energizes us to help our brain believe for better, for more, for greater… Along with faith and along with love it propels us each day into getting the most out of our journey, in really partaking of the fulness of what this life has to offer.

Our prayer is:

Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope! Romans 15:13 (The Passion Translation)

Maria