Let’s talk about Hope
Where do you place your hope? What does hope look like and feel like to you?
Verse of the Day
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.
Today’s Devotional
Psalm 39 brings us to David during a time of struggle. He is in such a state of turmoil that he doesn’t even want to speak, maybe for fear of saying something wrong. When the inner tension builds to a point of combustion, David turns to prayer. In his prayer, David asks God to show him how short and futile this earthly life is. Maybe having some kind of reminder that “this too shall pass” makes the current struggle more manageable.
Then, in the middle of his angst, David makes this beautiful profession of hope. So what is hope? The dictionary defines hope as “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best”. In order for us to have hope, we might need to identify what it is that is wanted. Maybe we want to know that ultimately everything will be OK. I tend to want to know that I will be taken care of. My guess is that we all want to be assured that everything really will turn out for the best.
So what do we hope in and for? And how do we hope in God? In today’s verse, David is hoping that God will show up. That God will walk him through his doubts and fears. That God will forgive him of his wrongs. Basically, David is hoping that God really is God.
I think hope is an antidote for doubt. And I don’t think doubting is wrong or even dangerous. I am in a group of fellow seekers who meet once a week. Almost all of us have had some kind of crisis that created some level of doubt about God and our faith. There is growth that happens when we ask the really hard questions. Because it allows us to deconstruct the kind of beliefs that others have forced upon us and it forces us to decide what we actually believe.
I believe God can handle our doubt, just like he can handle our struggles and our fears. As I was searching for verses, I found many verses about hope. That tells me that God is reminding us of something important. That God alone is our source of hope.
When someone is in a really tough spot, like maybe they lost a job and they are behind on their bills, you often hear them say something like, “My only hope is……(fill in the blank). Maybe it’s getting the job I interviewed for. Or maybe winning the lottery. David is reminding us, in the middle of his angst, that our only hope is in God. The outcome we are really hoping for is that God is sovereign, and that His authority will somehow create the circumstances in our lives in which we can survive.
This psalm that David writes is beautiful to me for several reasons. One, David shows us that it’s OK to struggle. Two, he demonstrates that there is an internal battle between keeping our struggles private (and feeling like we are going to explode) versus venting our struggle and perhaps spewing venom on those around us. Three, David models how to take our struggles to God. Last, David gives us a perfect example of why writing things down is so valuable. As we write, we process on paper what we are actually feeling. As we write out our prayers, we are reminded Who we are writing to. In most of the psalms, no matter if it is written in times of distress and struggle or times of peace, there is praise. There is hope that God is God and is bigger than our current circumstances.
Let’s be honest with ourselves about what we are hoping for. Most of the time, we probably just want our circumstances to change for the better. I challenge us to learn how to hope that God is who He says He is. We need to learn that our only hope is in God.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What does hope mean to you?
Do you believe that God is your only hope?
How can you follow David’s example of bringing your struggle to God and then placing your hope in Him?