Isaiah 40:31 “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”
As Father Raniero Cantalamessa writes, the three virtues of faith, hope and love “are like three sisters. Two of them are grown and the other is a small child. They go forward together hand in hand with the child hope in the middle. Looking at them it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child, but it is the other way around; it is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. It is hope that pulls faith and love. Without hope everything would stop.”
Biblical hope is not like the world’s hope – an expression of desire for an uncertain outcome – as in “I hope things work out in the end”. No, as followers of Christ, our “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Fyodor Dostoevsky seemed to understand this. He said: “To live without hope is to cease to live.”
I have been in places devoid of hope: tens of thousands of refugees forced into small areas with no toilets; disease rife and death a regular visitor. Despair seemingly ruled. And yet one old man in his seventies who’d witnessed his wife and kids hacked to death and his house burned down, was able to declare despite losing everything: “I never realized that Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had!”
This old man was still hanging in there whilst others were dying of despair. How about you? If you’re ever struggling, look to Jesus, our sure and certain hope. And if you’re doing fine today, look out for someone else who needs the offer of real hope, and reach out to them.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) Lord, I choose that hope! Amen!
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