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Hope: A Suitable Gift for Anyone
Read: Jeremiah 29:11-13
If you could give any gift in the whole world to the person you love the most, what would you give? I would give the gift of hope. Without hope, the soul shrivels, and the body eventually ceases to function.
Is there any difference between a good positive attitude, lots of optimism, and real hope? Have you ever visited a very sick friend and said, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to turn out okay.” You don’t know that absolutely. You surmise it will. You may even bet it will. But life is not always like that. Bad things happen to good people, even to “God’s people.”
Hope is not like that. It does not make that kind of assumption. It is reality-programmed. It looks at the facts, checks the problems of the situation, double-checks the obstacles to recovery, considers the diagnosis and treatments, and uses all available information to progress through the illness or difficult situation in the days ahead.
Hope is not a doctrine about the future.
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It is a grace cultivated in the present.
• It is a stance in the present which deals with the future.
We misunderstand the gift of hope if we value it only for the comfort it brings. It’s more than a refrigerator magnet philosophy that says, “Everything is going to be all right because God is in control.” Hope operates at a higher level.
• Christian hope points to the future as a field of action.
• Hope fills the present with energy.
• Hope is an anchor for the soul that equips us to frame the future.
Claim God’s gift of hope. Give God’s gift of hope.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for gifting us with hope. May we move confidently into the future knowing that we are anchored in You. Amen.
Recommended Resource: Anatomy of Hope by Dr. Jerome Groopman, published by Random House, ISBN 0-375-50638-1.
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Mel Moyer
Grand Junction, CO
Retired AB Pastor and
Editor of C-Word, a free e-newsletter
expressing God’s love to all who suffer.
Contact Mel at landmmoyer@bresnan.net |
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