The recent shootings in El Paso and Ohio make us all wonder “what in the world is happening”. Troubling times when we try to keep our focus on good things but are disturbed by the news of so much evil happening in our world. It makes me wonder if there is hope for our world; our country. That is when I begin looking for hope in troubling times.
It is like waking up from a scary nightmare and trying to get your focus off fear looking for hope somewhere somehow. Where can you find hope in times like these?
Looking For Hope In All The Wrong Places
When tragedies occur there is a tendency to start by finding someone or something to blame for the tragedy. It is as if by finding blame then you can find a solution to prevent this from ever happening again. Recently I woke up after a scary nightmare and it was so troubling that I started thinking, I have to stop watching all those scary shows. You know the kind where there is always some kind of mystery involved where people are be murdered by some creepy dude.
The suspense keeps you watching to see if the bad guy gets caught or even better shot up by a barrage of bullets from the good guys. If your the type to dream then most likely what you are focusing on has an influence on your dreams. So right away you commit to get rid of the cause – stop watching those kinds of movies.
When tragedies occur the most natural reaction is first to place blame and then to think of ways to stop them from ever happening again. Our hope in these cases almost always turns to changing the law. Of course when we think of ways to change the law we turn to government to enforce our preferred methods of help. We put our hope in our government.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in laws, and in law enforcement, but when we keep thinking of new laws to change the problems we have in our land often we never do find relief from what really troubles us.
The problems always seems deeper and so often the resistance to changing laws keeps us frustrated by inaction. That too frustrates our hope and our desire for some resemblance of peace.
As for me, I do want to see peace in our land but too often I am distracted by calls of immediate action which never seem to pan out, where can I find hope?
Searching For Hope In God
When I get frustrated that is when I turn to God looking for some hope in all this mess I find myself in. It is like the bad dream/nightmare scenario, changing my viewing habits doesn’t help when I am distressed at the moment. I want a hope that can carry me through the future troubles. Something that I can look to right in the midst of the trouble, a thought that will help me turn my thoughts away from my trouble. Something that will give me peace in the midst of the storm.
Here is the thing, if you can have hope when you face troubles your mind can work better, instead of looking for some secret way to solve your distress you can have peace right then, right now. Is it even possible to have that kind of hope in troubling times?
As For Me, I Will Always Have Hope
While that is not me right now that is the me that I want to be. Psalm 71:14 “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.” A psalmist wrote that so long ago. Psalm 71 is an anonymous testimony of how God was faithful throughout the psalmist’ life. There is hope that can carry us through any trial in life, that hope is in God alone.
Do you think that troubling times are only a thing of our day? That people in the past have not endured similar happenings that tempted them to lose hope. When you think about it you realize that every generation faces trials and troubling times. So why not consider ways to find hope in these troubling time as many others before us and look to God for hope.
How Can You Grow In Hope?
Do you know what I mean? I want my hope to be so strong that when troubling events occur I am not distracted but instead look to God for both hope and solutions. Yes, we can find solutions that will reduce the numbers of tragedies. But w can only do that when our minds are focused on where our hope comes from. Our greatest hope is in God, so we have to find ways to grow our hope.
One of the study sources I use when I seek answers it a site called Gotquestions.org. I always find answers that can help me along on my journey with God. If we are seeking how to grow in hope then we must first understand that there is a link between hope and faith. they are distinct but related. It is our faith in God, faith in His abilities, faith in trust that He can bring hope to our world that often seems hopeless.
“Biblical hope is built on faith”. As our hope that changing laws to help solve problems is built on our trust in the government to do right, so also our hope in God is built on our trust or faith in God. So how do we get more faith so that our hope grows? The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (ESV).
“Hope is a confident expectation that naturally stems from faith.” If in fact faith comes from hearing the word of God then the simplest way to grow our hope is to grow our faith by immersing ourselves in the word of God. If you want to learn how to grow your faith please check out this article I recently wrote on “Trusting God Through Trials.”
Conclusion
I could about this thing called hope for hours on end. There are immense amounts of articles on the internet and in the many books that have already been written on hope and faith. But the point is that we can find hope in God that will help us through these troubling times when we look to God, and seek his word. Carefully hiding his word in our hearts.
It takes action. I hope that something I have written helps you to find hope in troubling times. For there is an ever present hope found in God for whatever trial we face.
I encourage you to send me a note or leave a comment if I have helped. And if this article blesses your life then please share it on your social media.
Hoping for many blessing for your life, your journey, walking with hope.
Blessings
Ray
All over the world people are becoming more violent and as Christians, we have to stay strong and trust in Jesus
Faith, Hope and Love are our gifts and we need to trust in God and be kind and gracious towards everyone even the people who commit these hate crimes and hope they too will be saved and learn about living as a Christian with faith and love for God
This is a really great post and I hope it is shared many times to share the word- Thank you
Thank you, Vicki, I appreciate your words of encouragement too.
Blessings
Ray
Ray I shared this message of hope…It’s a message we all need to hear. I believe there is always Hope. Always.
Thank you Lyn. I am glad it spoke to your heart and thank you too for sharing.
Blessings
Ray
Hello Ray, a very inspirational article. I think that hope is something we always should have as without hope everything is useless. Just like you said there is so much evil in the world and so many bad things are happening every single day. It is true that God is our only savior and everything happens with His permission, it is on us to pray so He can grant our prayer and release good on our planet.