PRAISEFUL HOPE

“But I will HOPE CONTINUALLY, and will PRAISE You yet more and more” – Psalm 71:14

Believers in Christ are called to live in continual, PRAISEFUL HOPE: “But I will HOPE CONTINUALLY, and will PRAISE you yet more and more” (Psa.71:14). Biblical Hope surpasses having mere wishes. A wish may just want things to be different; but God’s kind of Hope rises from deep in the heart and is rooted in His Word. A worldly wish is a desire for something good that one isn’t assured will happen. Biblical Hope is confident and expectant that good will come just as God said it would. This Hope is too precious an asset to toy with or lose!

To be without Christ is to be without Hope: “...without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO HOPE and without God in the world” (Eph.2:12). No matter how much we tried, we always fell short. Our feeble hope was in ourselves and other things, not in Christ. Worse still, we were too proud to ask for help, and continued in misery! Life does not have to be on a downward spiral of hopelessness. Our hearts must be devoid of pride and self-deceit, tender and ready to listen, trust, and obey.

God’s Word and His Help are available! As we open our hearts and allow the Love of Jesus to flood the dark crevices within, we learn that our Hope must be in Christ alone. He is never shifting, faltering or failing. Hope can be continual because it is attached intrinsically to the Person of Jesus, and remains with Him into eternity. Jesus is in all things, through all things, and holds all things together (Col 1:16-17). So is Hope all around us all the time. So often we are blinded to it by the mess of life and the mundanity of day-to-day existence.

When we entrust God with our lives, there’s no need to worry if a situation is taking a long time or to be anxious about how far we still need to go. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” We can continue to Hope in God and praise Him more and more in the midst of difficulties, because we have His Peace. He saturates our mind with wisdom and leads us in the path of Victory. 

I choose to never lose hope or give up. I’ll keep on going, putting one foot in-front of the other until I’m fit enough to break into a jog, and then keep on jogging until my muscles and breath are full enough to run headlong into the Purposes and Grace that God has for me. I will Hope Continually in every season of life! No one and nothing can steal my Joy or Peace when my Hope is in God! As I continually Hope in God, He’ll “make haste to help” me (v.12). Hope is the anchor that keeps us firm and secure (Heb.6:19).