The Holy Spirit helps bring hope. Studies tell us that we can live weeks without food, days without water, minutes without oxygen, but I don’t believe we’re able to live a moment without hope. Hope is what moves us to continue to go forward. It reminds us that the present difficulties are not the end of the story. We have such a tendency to get stuck. We get stuck in our mess. We get stuck in our life. We get stuck in things that aren’t true. We get stuck in our fear or brokenness, anger, disappointment, and we just can’t move. It becomes a terrible place.
“God is our hope.”
“hope does not disappoint” – Romans 5:5
I think the only way that’s true is if we allow the Holy Spirit to come upon us to show us the reason for our hope. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope isn’t praying for a good outcome. If that’s the case, we’re always going to be frustrated. If I place my hope in God answering my prayers, if I place my hope in God doing what I want Him to do, I’m going to find myself frustrated and disappointed.
In fact, I’ve been there. At first, I had placed my hope in God answering my prayers for healing of my daughter. When He didn’t respond as I had hoped, I was devastated. The Spirit has shown me that my hope needs to rest simply in God, not in what He is, will or may do. This is the seed of trust. When I learned this I was able to let go and give into God’s Divine Will.
I pray daily for my kids’ return to the Church. But my hope rests fully in God’s love and mercy not in their reactions.
My hope is in Jesus and in Jesus alone. And if we place our hope anywhere else, we’ll be frustrated, we’ll be upset, we’ll be despairing, we’ll be disappointed.
We continue to read in Romans. It says, hope does not disappoint because—that should be a huge stop, full stop—because we ask ourselves the question: why does hope not disappoint? Because Scripture says, the love of God has been poured forth into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” – Romans 5:3-5