When Hope Feels Lost...

I finished a whole cup of coffee this morning before getting ready. I love when that happens. The last gulp was still hot.

I have a million things on my plate. I feel slammed at work. Five classes. Four preps. And in the last seven days, I’ve graded hundreds of pages of documents ranging from reports to cover letters to instructions to topic proposals. I am presenting at an academic conference today, and I’m still making the final push to polish my manuscript and send it off to my first opportunity for a potential agent. 

I feel tired just typing that...

But this week, this morning, this verse keeps running through my head: “And now hope does not disappoint…” 

It’s actually a line that runs through my main character’s head as she struggles with the loss she faces and the emptiness she feels. A reminder—hope is not lost. 

I think God has it running through my head now. 

HOPE

Hope was His word for me on Jan 1, 2015. A Year of Hope. A dear friend bought me a necklace with those very letters inscribed on it. H. O. P. E. 

The necklace was my Christmas gift. A God gift. 

At the time, we had just lost our last two embryos—the two we hoped would become our children.

I didn’t feel very hopeful when I opened that gift.

Over the last ten months, God has shown me the power of hope—not in my circumstances, not in my desires, not in my outcome.

But in Him.

The rest of the verse says, “And now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who given to us.”

I cling to verses like Psalm 25:3: “Those who wait/trust/hope in the Lord will not be disappointed/put to shame/kept waiting.”

There are several ways to translate that verse, but what a promise!

Where is our hope? In Jesus.

Why? Because of God’s great love for us.
How? Through the Holy Spirit.

I've blogged before those wise words from my pastor: "if you're disappointed in the gap, then your faith is not in God. God does not disappoint."

His hope does. not. disappoint. 

Friend, if you feel disappointed today, put your hope in Jesus again.

Remind yourself who you are in Christ.

Remind yourself that you have God’s Spirit inside of you.

Remind yourself how much your Heavenly Dad loves you.

He really does. And He won’t disappoint. He won’t put you to shame. He won’t keep you waiting.

It took me almost two months before I could wear my HOPE necklace. But I wear it every day. And every day I am reminded I have hope in Jesus.