Hope

SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:24 NIV But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

THOUGHT: Perhaps you’ve known (or been) someone who walks to the rhythm of a happy tune, like “keep on the sunny side of life.” But even if you look at the glass half full, you still have to deal with the other reality. I heard a pastor say the other week that hope is what you have when optimism is gone, and I thought it rang true. We can prop ourselves up and march on with a smile until crisis or disaster teach us that hope is something different. Sometimes it’s something we dig for, sometimes it’s not something we find at all – it finds us, broken and shattered, when we thought everything was lost.

It’s a big week in our country. Pray, and ask yourself if your hope lies in someone seen or unseen. I’ll be doing the same.

PRAYER: Oh God of hope, pull us forward into the future you have planned for us with hope that cannot disappoint (Rom. 5:5).