Keep Your Hope Alive

Keep Your Hope Alive
Having hope will give you courage... Job 11:18
Hope is a powerful force. It arouses your mind to explore every possible angle. It enables you to overcome the daunting obstacles. It's absolutely essential to the life God wants you to live. It's the fuel your heart runs on. It's the single biggest difference between those who persevere and those who give up. Hope is what makes couples say, 'I do,' without any guarantees, and later, after all the broken promises, pick up the pieces and try again knowing it can get better. It's why composers agonize over a score and artists over a canvas, believing some glimmer of beauty will emerge from the struggle. As an old man Henri Matisse was crippled with agonizing arthritis. When asked why he continued to wrap his swollen fingers around a brush every day he replied, 'The pain goes away; the beauty endures.' Laboring to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo grew so discouraged that he wanted to quit. But every morning hope pushed him up the ladder to fulfill his magnificent vision. Hope is what made Abraham leave home without knowing where God was taking him. It made Paul challenge the powers of Rome. It's what fueled the Old Testament prophets to keep taking on City Hall! This is not blind optimism, but faith focused, and hope-in God. '...You have been my hope...my confidence since my youth' (Psalm 71:5 NIV). You can survive the loss of many things, but not the loss of hope. Nobody experienced greater loss than Job, yet he wrote: 'Having hope will give you courage.' So keep your hope alive by trusting in God!