Where There Is Hope!

For in You, O LORD, I hope;
You will hear, O Lord my God. Psalm 38:15 NKJV

We, mere human beings, place our hope in a myriad of things--and people--and usually when we have placed all of our eggs in one basket--we are eventually disappointed and many are discouraged. Why? Our hope--in things and people--is misplaced. When our hope is totally in God--we are never disappointed--if we are willing to hear and obey.

There were many people who had hopes of winning the billion dollar lottery. We know because of the size of the jackpot and the number of people who had hopes of winning. But the reality is--no matter how many tickets a person purchased, only one was going to win. In this case--three people had the same numbers and shared the jackpot. How many others were disappointed?

And even when we "win" at some things, the victory brings with it other challenges. When professional sports team win a game, the expectation is they will keep winning and when they don't, fans, coaches, teams and owners are disappointed. Why? Their hope was in their individual and collective abilities, but someone had to lose in order for someone to win.

We place our hope in our leaders and are often disappointed when they fail to live up to our expectations and then we seek to replace them. This is especially true when leaders fail to consider the big picture in making decisions about those they lead. The primary example for this misguided hope is the situation that now exists in Flint, Michigan with its water crisis. Trying to save the city money is going to cost--the city, the residents and the governor--when the fallout of using contaminated water is determined. It is already costing the families who live there--those who have ingested lead-laced water.

We place our hope in teachers and educational systems when corruption runs rampant and greed reigns and children are the biggest losers because those in charge--forgot about them. The situation with the teachers in the Detroit Public School system is not new; it has been germinating for decades, but it has finally sprouted and all the ugliness revealed--because it is time to fight back with teachers taking up the banner, saying enough is enough.

This post is not intended to address the political ramifications of corruption and complacency, but to demonstrate how misplaced hope (without God) will always end in disappointment.

Not so with God--in Him--we can rest assured that He will do and accomplish all He says in His Word when we hear and obey Him. The problem is most of us won't trust Him completely and when we try to trust--just a little bit--we are disappointed because we lacked the ability to trust Him completely. Our hope and trust have to be in Him since He is the only constant in our lives. We cannot trust people who don't honor Him and we certainly cannot trust--things--that have no soul or spirit--no conscience or feelings regarding right or wrong.

In You, O Lord, do we place our complete trust and hope, now and forever. For there is none like You who holds our future in Your hand, knowing all there is know about us and yet loving us anyway.