Hold Onto Hope

With everything going on with COVID-19, I want to share the importance of holding onto hope. Biblical hope is much more than the idea of “hoping” or “wishing” something might happen. True hope is much deeper.

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” And 1 Peter 3:15 says, “…always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…”

The definition for the word hope in these verses is: “desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it, full of hope and confidence.” The Amplified Bible calls it “joyful and confident expectation.”

Hope is not crossing our fingers. Hope is not superstitious, luck/chance, or a roll of the dice. Biblical hope is the confident and joyful expectancy of the good things we believe for and put our faith in.

Hope is a very necessary ingredient in normal living. If we stop and think about it, we will realize hope has served as a great power and motivation to drive many people into achieving many of the world’s greatest accomplishments!

All of us staying in our homes and not meeting publicly is driven by our collective hope that this pandemic will be over with sooner than later. The hope that fewer people will get sick and die from this virus.

Hope is very important. Hope keeps us going. Biblical hope expects good things to happen. The expectation is so confident and sure that we can even receive joy as a byproduct!

Hope sustains people when they face difficult situations and hard things in life. It is hope things will get better that we can continue to fight and go on. Hope helps us when we are down and discouraged.

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I am sure there are some of us who may be close to losing hope in certain areas of life right now. I am also sure there are others of us who could exercise the power of their hope and do more for themselves, and for those around them.

Instead of asking “what is the purpose of all this,” I am finding much more hope and life in asking “what is my purpose in the midst of all of this?”

Jesus is with us. Jesus is with YOU. We can still find hope, meaning, and purpose during these times.

In the book, Man's Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl (a psychologist and holocaust survivor) writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Hope is contagious, but so is fear. What are you choosing to spread?

My prayer over you is Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”