What is Hope?

You can exist for several weeks without food, you can exist for several days without water, you can exist for several seconds without air... But you cannot live without hope.

You need hope to cope. Hope keeps your soul alive.

Now, most people don't understand hope.

Hope is not some wishful thinking about the future, some pie in the sky on the by and by.

You need hope now. You need hope today. You need hope in the morning.

You need hope not because you're gonna die tonight, you need hope because you need to wake up tomorrow and live.

Hope is NOT optimism.

Optimism is psychological. Hope is theological.

Optimism is personal trust in yourself. Hope is personal trust in God.

Optimism is what you think you can do. Hope is what you think God can do.

Optimism is often a denial of reality. It's positive thinking, not permanent trust.

Optimism sometimes just denies the reality that, yeah, life really is bad in your life in this particular moment.

Hope never does that.

Hope is always reality.

Hope says, "Yep, it's bad. It's really really bad. I've never seen anything worse than this. But I BELIEVE, God can bring us through this. I believe God is IN CONTROL."

1 Pet 1:21

"Because God raised Jesus from the dead, your FAITH and HOPE can be placed confidently in God"

The reason why people are hopeless today is because they're putting their hope in all the wrong things, and they're looking for hope in all the wrong places.

If you put your hope on success, or status, or your salary, or sex,

or position, possession, privilege, power, or popularity,

every one of those things are gonna disappoint you.

You got to put your hope on something that cannot be changed...

And that's God's love for you.

That's never gonna stop

That's never gonna change.