As We Hope in Thee

Hope.
Is it an elusive thing, there one moment, gone the next? Or does it remain, steady, constant, a slowly enduring flame in the embers of our hearts?
It depends on the situation.

Hope is a choice.
When you've given up hope, there's nothing left to live for. Life becomes an endless treadmill of stress. You trudge along, but are really going nowhere. Ugh. I don't want a life like that... do you?

A life with hope is filled with light and joy and peace, because no matter what is going on around you, inside there's a little spark... the coals glow, no matter how hard the cold wind howls outside.

Mind if I share a poem?

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

        ~Emily Dickinson

Psalm 33:20-22
Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. For our hearts shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
The great hope, Jesus Christ:

1 Peter 1:3...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
If anyone asked why we should have hope when the world is so dark and dreary - the answer would be "Because He lives!" He's conquered sin, once and for all. That's why we can have hope in any circumstance.
He is why we hope.

Not a sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing about it. (Matthew 10:29)

So don't be afraid to hope. Trust him with your dreams, your desires... your heart. He'll be there waiting if you fall. Be filled with that glad burst of fireworks, that slowly burning glow... Hope.

His,

Julia