Hope is what makes us look forward to a new day. We hope that this new diet will finally help us to lose those pounds. We hope that a new outfit will make someone notice us. We hope that our social media post will get lots of “likes” so we can feel accepted. We hope we are included in social events that we don’t even really want to attend just so we don’t feel rejection. And we certainly hope that Google will tell us not to worry about those weird symptoms we’ve been experiencing!

The problem with this kind of hope is that, in every single instance, it is mixed with doubt. We hope for something better, but there is always at least a grain of doubt that it will actually happen. Our experiences mostly prove that we’ll be disappointed. Yet, hope wakes us up again tomorrow.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” The One who made us, set hope for a future in our very hearts. He wants us to hope, because if we don’t want MORE, then we’ll start to be satisfied with LESS. This world with its disease, gender confusion, abortion, racism, abuse and hedonism is WAY less than what Jesus offers us. And His offer doesn’t expire. His hope doesn’t disappoint. Are you afraid that you don’t deserve more? Could it be that you’re willing to accept the attention of this world even if it means embracing all the sin as well? You are worth more, I promise. The lasting hope is for you, but you have to choose it.

How do we move from the kind of hope that’s mixed with doubt, fear and disappointment to the kind of hope God chose for us? We look for Him. I mean, we really put in some effort and we search for Him. Jeremiah 29:13 says “and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”

I remember clearly the day I truly found Him. In my early 30s I was struggling with anxiety, a failing relationship and plenty of shame centered around my life before I’d accepted Christ. I had been praying and praying for help, and I felt like God wasn’t hearing me or He had just abandoned me. I was at my lowest point early one Sunday morning when I cried out to Him in the shower, literally on my knees because I couldn’t stand. I asked Him where He was and why He would leave me so hopeless!

However, I eventually pulled myself together and slapped a smile on my face and went to church. No one could have guessed that I was so broken. My teacher and mentor, Clydella Holzbauer, saw me walk in perky and smiling as usual and even though she was mid-sentence with someone else, she just walked away from that person and gathered me to her in a hug. She had never hugged me before. She was wonderful, but not very “huggy.” I said “Wow! What was that for?” and she said (pointing up) “It wasn’t from me, it was from Him.”

My life was changed in that single gesture. Not because all my struggles fell away, but because I had real hope for the first time in my life. It was a hope that the friends I talked to didn’t have for me. It was a hope that my anxiety medication didn’t give me or even my prayer journals that I faithfully wrote in every day. It was the hope of finally believing that the God who loved me and who saw me crying in the shower that day was so much closer than I understood. Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts…”

In so many ways, we are all coming out of our homes again and re-entering our lives, but some have lost people they love because of the pandemic. Some are left with health issues, money problems, job losses that are devastating. Even still, I want to encourage you to not lose sight of REAL hope! He is so much closer than you know!