HOPING FOR HOPE

When we are hoping for hope usually we are feeling hopeless. This makes even thinking of hope a pretty abstract idea. As despair, stress, worry and concern sweep over us from any number of reasons, we feel hopeless and it is often very difficult to even think of hope or hoping for hope.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) once said, “We only ever know the true meaning of hope once we are hopeless.”

The apostle Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans, “but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” It is not easy to see our character being developed and producing hope while we are going through difficulty, but it is, because hope does not put us to shame. The text says, ‘suffering, endurance, character, hope’ and that’s still a tough formula and difficult to “rejoice” about.

Have faith in God. Jesus