- Psalm 31:24 (NKJV) Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
It’s easy to confuse wishing with hoping; I do both.
Wishing is desiring something to happen without any real reason for expecting results; sort of like counting on the Cubs winning the World Series (something they haven’t done in 105 years).
Hopefulness, however, is just the opposite. For the Christian, hopefulness is confident expectation based on the character, promises and plans of God.
In other words, hopefulness is not a feeling it is a choice; a choice that is ground in the greatest reality in all: God.
Living life hopefully takes a lot of faith and courage and a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty; for through God knows what he is doing, you and I don’t always know what He is up to. But…we can be hopeful in any and all situations because we know Him and thus we know that his plans for us are good and proper and in the end will work together for our good.
So perhaps the best response we could give the next time someone asks us how we’re doing is to reply, “I’m hopeful.”
The ONE THING 