Having Hope

On September 11th, twenty-two years ago, many Americans lost their hope in humanity. How could other humans intentionally kill thousands of innocent human beings?

The events that followed the attack restored some hope in humanity. Brave rescue personnel sacrificed their lives to save others. People around the nation stepped up to support families and friends of those directly impacted. People of different faiths came together to pray.

Living in a broken world is hard; we are imperfect and weak human beings. We want to control our lives.

We cannot control many things, including other people.

Where do you place your hope?

Placing our hope in people, wealth, circumstances can lead to disappointment and can even make us depressed. If we place our hope in God, we take our eyes off our circumstances. We may feel unhappy, yet He fills us with His joy.

God is a God of hope. We must never forget how deeply God loves each one of us. To unite us with Him, God allowed His only son to experience temptation, pain, suffering and death. He allowed Christ to bear the sins of this world. God desires a relationship with each one of us that much.

Suffering is a part of life. We endure the trials and hardships that this broken world gives us. We lift our eyes upward, cling more tightly to God and invite God to walk along side us. Sometimes, God carries us.

Broken people make up this world. We see others as broken not realizing brokenness affects us all.

How do you deal with your brokenness?

I tend to think of humans as cracked vessels. As humans, we choose how we use our brokenness. Do we pour rain on others, bringing them down in spirit? Or do we use our craacked vessel to pour out Christ’s light on others, lifting and filling them up? How about trusting God? Do we trust that He can use us, cracks and all? Do we allow Him to pour into us His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, patience, compassion, kindness and peace? How well do we pour these things out on others?

We all can have hope. A confident hope, not wishful thinking. One day we can all live in paradise thanks to what God and Christ did for us. God promises us this. God does not lie.

We walk forward in faith. We extend love to others, rejoicing in our hope in a living God who offers us each eternal life.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, when my soul is downcast, I place my hope in You. You alone are my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I will not be shaken. In Your word I put my hope for You are the God of hope. Fill me with joy and peace as I trust in You so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Psalm 42:5, 62:5, 130:5, Romans 15:13)