Where can we find hope? There’s so much tragedy around us. My text messages, email in-box, and Facebook newsfeed is full of prayer requests. There are many needs, and the need is that lives will be better.
That’s what we hope for when we pray–answers to make things better. But where do we find hope when circumstances seem so dark.
We serve a God who is the source of hope.
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, NLT).
To find hope in the midst of all the trials we find ourselves in, we turn to God.
Where do we find God? We find him by reading the Bible and meditating on Scripture.
What difference does reading a book make? The Bible is not just any book. The words are alive.
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, Berean Study Bible).
God’s word is alive. When we meditate on the truth of His word, we receive life.
One of the ways I found to meditate on His word is to journal. In the midst of one of the darkest seasons of my life, I started my hope journal and continue to journal in it to this day.
In this journal, I’d write Scriptures I read with the word hope in it.
I printed out encouraging emails and pasted it on the pages to remember that God uses others to spread hope.
I pasted cards I received in the mail with hope poems and hand-written words from friends.
I printed out quotes I saw on the internet.
I also wrote notes to myself and printed out articles about hope to read over and over. The way to journal is endless and only limited by our own imaginations.
Journaling the last three years about hope has taught me a valuable lesson–I can only find hope in God. If I put my hope in others changing, I end up disappointed. If I put my hope in my circumstances improving, I end up disappointed.
But if I put my hope in the Word of God, HE fills me with confident hope. Only in God will we find true hope.