It is not difficult to look at the world and lose hope. If you look for some hope in the daily news, you will likely be disappointed.
What is this ethereal hope? In our modern way of speaking, it just means that we have a desire for something to happen: I hope it rains. But this modern usage has weakened and diminished the potency of the word.
We get closer to the power of hope with this definition from Wikipedia: an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes. Here, the concept of having hope is meaningful. This hope gets closer to helping us transcend the trials and tribulations of this world.
But these definitions of hope are still weak. They are airy feelings that can be obliterated when life falls apart at the seams.
The hope that the Lord wants for us is not a natural desire for something, and it is not an optimistic state of mind anchored in the experiences and activities of this natural world.
When you consider the state of the world, or maybe even the state of your own life, I pray that you consider this definition of hope: a feeling that comes from trust.
Hope isn’t the foundation itself. It sits on a bedrock of trust in the Lord. Without that trust in the Lord, hope is no better than a hunch or a guess that things will be fine.
This begs the question, though: how does one attain this trust in the Lord? The answer is that we learn to trust the Lord the same way that we learn to trust a person: through experience. When somebody is there for us in good times and hard times, then we learn to trust them. With the Lord, though, the difference is that we are learning to trust the Lord with our spiritual life. He promises us that, if we live a life that He has in mind for us, He will provide us with strength for a fight, peace during hard times, and joy in the rest. This kind of trusting in the Lord gives us the feeling of hope that everything will be all right in the end.
When the world looks rough around the edges—and maybe rough in the middle—take a moment to breathe and put your trust and hope in the Lord with these words: Thy will be done.