Day 28: Where My Hope Comes From

Miqweh Yisrael, Hope of Israel.  This name for God is the one that moves me the most.  To me it encompasses all the other character traits into one. 

God is our hope.  Because of Him we can hope for a better future.  We can hope for healing.  We can hope that things will all work out for good, even when circumstances say that they shouldn’t. 

Because of Miqweh Yisrael, we can look forward to the light of morning, even in the darkest of nights.

And most importantly, we have the hope for a life beyond this one - one with no sin, sickness or crying.

At the beginning of this year, I found myself in a place where I was having a crisis of faith.  Doubts as to whether or not my faith was just another man made fable ran around in my head.

During that time, I experienced some of the most empty, hopeless moments of my life.

Without God, without our hope, what is the point of it all?  Without the hope of something better on the other side, why endure all the hardship and pain that comes from being alive?

Since I am a facts person, I sought answers in the book The Case for Christ.  A book written by a former atheist journalist who was looking to prove Christianity wrong.  In the process he became convinced that God was real and that Jesus was crucified and resurrected. 

I too became convinced that what I had believed all my life was more than just a fairy story, but instead cold hard fact.  And my hope returned.

I look back at that time and realize that the hopelessness that I felt is what so many people feel on a daily basis.  I cannot imagine living with that blackness in my heart everyday.

Because of that, it is my desire to share the gift of hope that I have been given with as many people as possible.

I pray that maybe something you have read here has encouraged you to do the same.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall always stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious, and does not cease to bear fruit. 
O hope of Israel!  O Lord!
Jeremiah 17:7-8, 13