What Is Hope?

So many false hopes fill our hearts! Dreams of what-might-be fill our minds with fantasy. True hope does not depend on chance or dream. True hope meets us in our present circumstance and guides us towards what we are meant-to-be.

"For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8.24-25)

Raising Eyes

Is hope only a distant dream:
A delusion of what might be,
An illusion of false esteem
For myths held but tenuously?

Can hope be found amidst the pain,
Of hearts beset by grief and loss?
Where is the sun, when all is rain,
For souls who only see the cross?

Hope is the promise of rebirth;
Like springtime sun on winter snows.
Hope, in spirit, renews the earth --
A force of life which ever flows.

Hope draws life from what's meant-to-be:
Meaning's infused in the moment;
Eyes are raised to eternity --
Knowing God lives in the present.

Though the journey's a slipp'ry slope;
God's love is here -- He is our hope!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15.13)

Lord, lift up my eyes to find you in the midst of my present troubles, and be Yourself my steadfast hope. Amen.