Hope – such a small word and yet such a big word!
A word that represents optimism, anticipation, encouragement, four letters that mean so much. If you add another 4 letters then we are filled with dismay, sadness, disappointment – hopeless does everything but encourage.
In 2022 and especially at the moment with all the woes of recessions, financial concerns, and the current energy crisis it can be hard to find hope for the future in what feels like a hopeless world but we need to be encouraging one another to look for the positives, to look for hope.
Just before he died Johnny Cash covered a song by the band the Nine Inch Nails, called Hurt, the lyrics talk of self- harm, of destruction and of having no hope and what seems like the eternal search for something more.
These are perhaps not alien thoughts or feelings in the modern world so what can we do, who can we turn to, what are we searching for?
Hope goes before faith – faith is is believing and trusting in something that you cannot see, hope is imagining that there is something there to even believe and trust in. It is the belief in what could be. Hope redefines what is probable and opens the paths to the impossible.
The Bible is very clear in Psalms 62:5-6 we read, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
Take hope in the Lord God Almighty and there you will find security, encouragement and ultimately salvation.
Claire Revie is from Norreys Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
