Is there any hope?

“Hope is the state which promotes the belief in a good outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. Despair is often regarded as the opposite of hope. Hope is the “feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best” or the act of “look[ing] forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence” or “feel[ing] that something desired may happen”. Other definitions are “to cherish a desire with anticipation”; “to desire with expectation of obtainment”; or “to expect with confidence”.

I stopped at a red light behind a car that had an interesting bumper sticker, it said “I feel so much better since I gave up hope!” Wow, I wondered, what had happened to them that they had such a dim view of life, or maybe they were just trying to be facetious, thumbing their nose at all of us who hang on to hope by the skin of our teeth.

Proverbs 13:12 Unrelenting disappointment (or hope deferred) leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around. One definition of the word hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

During WWll there was a submarine that sank to the bottom of the ocean after being struck by ammunition. As the sailors were desperately trying to get in touch with a ship that could help, they got word that divers had found them and were trying to rescue them. As they waited, it is told that there was the tapping of Morse code from inside the ship “IS THERE ANY HOPE?”

Let me ask it of you, is there any hope? Hope for our nation, hope for the young men and women fighting on foreign shores for us, hope for the many homeless living under bridges and in alley ways, hope for those so steeped in debt that they are on the verge of losing their homes? Hope for someone stricken with a dread disease, hope for the fallen Christian, who after having known the truth turns his back on God? Are you tapping on the walls of your own prison asking, praying, and hoping for a good outcome?

We let ourselves get so swamped by worry that it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, then our physical body and mental capacities begin to fail us, but no matter what I faced in the past or what I may face tomorrow I refuse to be disheartened, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Proverbs 31:24 So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the LORD!