Do you have “hope”?

I love the word hope. Oh, not the wishful thinking type of thing. 

But REAL hope.  

Hope is defined as an opinion or belief grounded on substantial evidence. It is confidence in a future event. It is trusting in God’s gracious promises. 

Hope…helps you smile through the trial. 

Hope…helps you to keep giving even when it hurts. 

Hope…helps you to keep believing that wayward soul will find their way home. 

Hope…helps you hold it all together. 

Hope…helps you to never stop praying. 

Hope…helps you find rest during weary and hard days. 

Sometimes it’s hard to hope though. 

It’s hard to find hope, when there doesn’t seem to be any evidence your trial will get better. It’s hard to find hope, when you don’t have confidence that the future will be any different.

But what if you are looking in the wrong place? WHAT IF the reason God allows your trials and tribulations…is instead because it makes a way for Him to give you hope?

Romans 3:3-5a says: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed;”

When we endure through tribulations and trials…we gain confidence in the wisdom and goodness of God, and that produces patience. 

And that patience? It allows us to experience who God is. It gives us a chance to examine God and gain confidence that He is able to bring us through the trials. Just like metal is tried in the fire, God shows off who He is through the fire. 

And when we get to examine who God is through that experience? Well. That gives us HOPE. Not wishful thinking. But hope. A firm confidence in the future. The knowledge that God will bring it to pass. That we can trust all His promises. 

• While working with addicted through RU, or praying for my own family members stuck in the throes of addiction, I often say “As long as they are breathing, there is hope.”

• When I had been married for 17 years without having a child, I had hope that someday God would bring that to fruition for us. 

• When we saw dear friends leave the church, we had hope they would find their way back. 

• When we were newly married, buried in what felt like a black hole of debt we would never climb out of, we had hope that God would make a way for us to climb out of it. 

• When my dad was diagnosed with cancer at a young age, and died just a few months later, I had the hope that he gets eternity in Heaven.

While “hope maketh not ashamed”, I just have to remember that hope comes FROM the trials and tribulations. The trials give me the patience to experience who God is, to examine what He is made of…and through that confidence in Him, I can gain hope. 

Tribulations = Patience

Patience = Experience

Experience = Hope