Have You Lost Hope?

My daughter had given up hope. 

She had learned in the last few years just how financially strapped we had become and thought to herself "there is no way I will get a Kindle for my birthday".  We had said no when she asked. We knew we couldn't afford one. I had one that was a few years old, but next to my kids, my phone and my Kindle were my most prized possessions.

Then, I decided, that giving my daughter hope again was more important than a thing. I cleaned the Kindle up, a friend bought a skin, we put it back in the original packaging (my husband obsesses about keeping the boxes of everything!) and wrapped it up.

The look on her face was amazing.

"Are you for real?" was the first thing she asked.

We were and in that instant, her hope was restored.

What the Bible Says 

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.   Proverbs 13:12 (KJV)

If you have lost hope, you are in a dangerous place. Lack of hope is disheartening. It will cause you to doubt, and make you vulnerable to despair. 

Lamentations, (the book of mourning) tells us this: no matter how bad the circumstance, there is always reason to hold onto hope. 

Lamentations 3:20-22  (MSG) 

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,

the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom.But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.

Now my daughter's circumstances were not all that dire. She has a roof over her head, two parents that love her, friends, and so much more. Maybe she even has things you don't have. Your circumstances may be mounting up and crowding in on you. You may feel overwhelmed and without recourse or hope. 

Do not give up!  

God's mercy is new today! Just for you. 

Job lost everything. Every piece of livestock, every acre of land, his house, and every child. All of them were gone. He had reason to despair. He had reason to give up. Then he became ill. So ill his friends and wife were baffled by it all. Job was a righteous man. He had done good things all his life, including loving and serving God. Why did these horrible things happen? 

Because he was afraid they would, and the enemy hit Job in his most vulnerable area- his family. His friends questioned him. His wife begged him to curse God and die. To her, nothing could have been worse. She had lost hope. But not Job. 

Job had hope that the God who he had served so faithfully all his life, (the one who had kept and blessed him all those years) would again save him. 

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" 

Hope brings us alive. When we dream of the future, hope bubbles up like a fountain of life. When I think of the things God has done for me in the past, I know my future is  brighter than anything I could actually dream up. I have hope. 

What gives you hope?