The Path to Lasting Hope

Hope comes by a process.

It isn’t listed in the Galatians 5 fruit of the Spirit.

It isn’t mentioned in Romans or Corinthians as a gift of the Spirit.

Hope comes as a domino

Tumbling gloriously into our lives

As an inevitable sequence of pain and grace

Cycles in our lives:

“Suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope” (Rom. 5:3-4).

I’d prefer a shortcut

But there is no easy button

For the kind of godly hope

That endures and prevails and anchors—

Hope that is assured of future blessedness,

Hope that faces down all manner of disappointment,

Hope that doesn’t weaken or wilt or waste away,

That sort of hope in God

Comes by a process:

Suffering – the heavy weight of challenge, leads to

Endurance – bearing under the adversity by grace, leads to

Character – virtue and wisdom grounded in revelation, leads to

Hope – not wishful thinking, but assurance of blessedness no matter what.

In a hopeless world,

I bless you to be filled with hope,

Though it be forged in fire,

Be filled with hope.