Hope

Where do we get hope from, when things seem hopeless? There are days when we cry out, ‘how can I carry on like this?’ Sometimes things seem so difficult. Any light we see at the end of the tunnel disappears. The walls of life press in on us. It’s dark and there seems to be no escape - no way out.

Paul calls our heavenly Father, ‘the God of hope’ (Romans 15:13). But how can we find that hope? Today’s verse says that hope comes through two things.

The first is endurance. Hanging in there, teeth gritted if necessary. Persevering uphill, however slowly and painfully, actually leads to the growth of hope. The second thing is that hope comes through the encouragement of the Scriptures. They were written by God for you and me! There are so many encouraging scriptures, especially in the Psalms, where David asks all the hard questions and then often shows us a way to get the answers. Encouragement comes directly from God Himself. He can speak His words directly to you through any scripture.

Endurance is a gift which God will give to you, for Romans 15:5 contains these precious words: ‘the God who gives endurance and encouragement’. So He doesn’t expect you to do it all yourself. He will never leave you without comfort. He will always give you what you need - so you can have hope.

He knows how much we all need hope. Let’s persevere today and take encouragement from today’s Scripture.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You that You are the God of hope. Thank You for the encouragement of this scripture. Help me to persevere and feed on Your Word until hope grows stronger in me, in Jesus’ name, Amen.