Hope Has Room to Breathe

Devotional

A truth to carry

Paul calls God "the God of hope." Hope is not something you must manufacture from a body and mind already stretched thin. It has a source outside your depleted reserves. The prayer is that God will fill. A filled cup receives; it does not strain. You can come empty, skeptical, or exhausted. Believing may be as simple as setting the cup down before Him and saying, "If hope is available, I need You to give it." Abounding hope does not mean constant optimism about health. It means the future remains open to God's presence and purpose. There may be new treatments, adaptations, relationships, or forms of service you cannot yet imagine. There is also the deeper Christian future in which suffering is not the final condition of creation. Hope stretches farther than a prognosis. Joy and peace may enter in measured amounts. Allow them breathing room. Constant exposure to alarming information can crowd the inner life. So can relationships that demand explanations or offer uninvited cures. Protect a little space for what strengthens you: Scripture, music, nature, safe company, counseling, creativity, or quiet. The Holy Ghost is named as the power of hope. You do not need the physical power to carry every possibility. Let the Spirit hold the horizon while you inhabit this day. Hope can be abundant in source even when your experience of it is small. A single deep breath in a closed room is evidence that air still exists. Open the window as far as you can, and trust God with the rest.