Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right?
You turn off the alarm instead of hitting snooze and fall back asleep. Jolting awake an hour later, you grab clothes with blazing speed–not enough time to wash your hair, put on makeup, or eat. No teeth brushing either, which your officemate regrets the rest of the day. Later you spill coffee down the front of your white shirt and walk around with a large wet spot until it dries to a dull brown. You send an email to the wrong person and have a major typo in a document that goes out. No cash, no lunch and the deli doesn’t take credit cards. After eating a stale granola bar, you endure a heated phone call with your unhappy client and add three more emergency projects to your already overwhelmed To-Do list. You’re ten minutes late dialing into your boss’s boss’s weekly update call. Finally the workday ends. And your gas tank is empty. You man the pump in the sweltering heat and then arrive home. But your milk is sour so even a boring dinner of cereal isn’t an option. You hesitate to ask, “Seriously, what else can go wrong today?” Then you open your only piece of mail–a past due notice for the cell phone bill you forgot to pay. And by the way, your dog is sick and had an “accident” on your bed. Welcome home.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Okay, maybe this is just my worst day. But sooner or later, we all have them. Days we hope for something different.
Hope. Most of us want things to happen or change but we realize they’re out of our control. So we use the word hope a lot. “I hope you feel better.” “I hope she does well on her test.” “I hope I don’t lose my job.” “I hope he comes back.” “I hope things don’t get worse.”
What is hope? Hope is desiring something and believing on some level that it can happen.
Hope helps us think about what can be, instead of what currently is. Hope encourages us to keep pressing on. Hope keeps us from sinking as we struggle to stay afloat. Sometimes we’re afraid to hope. We’ve been let down in the past. We’re hurt. We don’t know where to turn or what to believe. We hoped for something and it didn’t happen. We feel betrayed. Our hopes have been shattered.
How can we hope again? The truth is that our circumstances will never stay the same. Things may get harder before they get better, but if we hold onto the smallest ray of hope, we can know with certainty that tomorrow is a day closer to something new.
To find hope, we have to look outside of ourselves and outside of our circumstances. True hope is based on new life ahead. No matter where we are–no matter where we’ve been–we can have new life. There is hope. God will fill us with hope. He will bring us to new life. But we have to take the first step. We have to turn to God and trust Him. God has the power to set us on solid ground. He has the power to transform our life. God wants us to know Him and trust Him. He wants us to have hope.
Place your hope in God. Then He will fill you with hope for tomorrow and beyond.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
May I pray?
Lord, many of us struggle with finding hope in our daily lives. We may be okay for a while, but then something happens and we’re back in a place of loneliness, despair or confusion. Lord, help us to bring our fears and hurts to You so that You can take them from us. Fill us to overflowing with Your hope, joy and peace. You are the God of hope. There is no other like You. Help us to believe in You and trust in You. We praise You for Your power and love. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray. Amen.
Q4U: What is something that happened on a day when nothing went right, and how did you find hope that things would get better?