Chasing Hope
Have you ever heard the expression, “Hope is not a strategy?” I looked up the word hope in the Bible and discovered it’s mentioned 129 times in the NIV translation and 167 times in the KJV. I guess if you need more hope, the King James Version is the way to go.
Everyone needs hope, but hope often lets people down. When I was a junior in high school, I was the anchor for our mile relay team. Our mile relay team was really good, and most of the time I had a lead when I took the baton for the final lap. One time we faced a team that had a better mile relay team than us. Their anchor was the best 400 runner in our league. As I watched the race, waiting to take the baton from our 3rd runner, it was obvious I was going to have to make up a lot of ground. By the time I grabbed the baton and took off, their runner had a 25-yard lead on me. I ran the first 200 yards faster than usual, and to my amazement, I was making up ground fast. By the time we reached the 300-yard mark, I had caught their anchor.
I felt like Superman at that point. I thought to myself, This is going to be my greatest feat yet. Just as I was starting to pass Ben Castro (I still remember his name), he turned on the afterburners and left me in the dust. As I limped across the finish line, I heard a bunch of people laughing. It was at that point I realized Ben was playing with me and had purposely slowed down to give me false hope. I felt like a fool for thinking I could win that race. I was chasing hope, but hope let me down.
Hope is not a strategy unless your hope is in God. The important question is: What is the object of your hope? King David went through some incredibly difficult times. He didn’t deny his feelings in those difficult times, but instead directed his hope towards God. Listen to what David said in a time of testing:
“Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.”
— Psalm 43:5
The world will give you false hope, but you can trust God. He will never give you false hope. Putting your hope in God is a strategy — but unlike putting your hope in yourself or something else, putting your hope in God is a strategy that delivers every time. Are you chasing hope? Put your hope in God.
Stay close to Jesus,
Steve