Keep hope alive

Wed, 14 Feb 2024

‘Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.’ Hebrews 11:1

At some stage in our lives, most of us will or have gone through times when things looked hopeless. But, when you decide things are hopeless, you slam the door in God’s face.

First: Take all your troubles or desires to God. If you’ve gotten to the stage where you feel things are hopeless, you’ve clearly neglected your faith, or you’ve been hoping for something that is not in God’s will. ‘Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.’ (Hebrews 11:1 NASB20)

Second: Give hope a symbol – something you can centre your thoughts around. Jeremiah taught God’s people a lesson in hope by buying land at Anathoth (see Jeremiah 32:9). He knew they would be taken into captivity, and during those long years, the memory of that faraway field in Judah would act as a symbol of future restoration.

During World War II, when Leo Algimas and his family were herded into concentration camps, they maintained a symbol of hope, a tiny piece of paper from a box of chocolates with an American flag on the bottom. They passed it from hand to hand, looked at it, held it, and whispered about the liberation army that was coming.

Symbols help us fix our minds on what’s possible. In fact, the greatest symbol the world has ever known was the hardest to believe. A baby in a manger signalled God’s kingdom on earth and changed mankind’s destiny. And He can change your destiny. Define what you hope for, ask in His name, and if it’s God’s will, no matter how impossible it looks, expect it to come true.