Hope is not wishing on a star, crossing your fingers, or positive thinking. Hope is faith placed in our loving Father’s protection, provision and promises. That is hope that endures through darkness and despair, trials and tribulation, sadness and suffering in such extremes we could never master in our natural strength. Stars fall and plunge to the earth leaving only craters to mark their passing. Crossed fingers only reveal a childish belief that we determine what will happen, and positive thinking is difficult to maintain when emotions plunge. We need more than a “hard sell pep talk;” our hearts are breaking.
Hope crosses my heart. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed (1Peter 3:15-16 NKJ).” Jesus rose from the dead. All things are possible to those who believe in Him and His resurrection power. A hope chest is not nestled in my bedroom corner; hope is abiding in my chest, it lives because Jesus lives and has promised to leave me never.
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