WE SHOULD HOPE WHEN THERE IS NO HOPE

Never quit.

Never give up on a family member, a close friend...or even yourself.

Never quit.

Even when matters seem hopeless, these very moments are pregnant with definite hope.

Referencing great-grandfather-aged Abraham in Romans 4, when faced with God's promise that he and Sarah would yet have a child, the apostle Paul penned, In hope against hope be believed in order that he might become the father of many nations. Abraham did become that father to baby Isaac.

Quickly Paul then wrote in Romans 5:1-5 that there are two places for hope to be found; when things are going well and....when things aren't.  That just about wraps it up! Hope can breathe possibility and probability when there would seem to be ample legitimate reason to give up.

We live in a world of give-uppers.  We've had it.  We tried.  We saw no improvement. We quit.  We give up.

And God says, Stop it!

To believe in God is more than going to church and sitting in rows.  When I was a kid I went to church ever watching the clock to see just how soon it would be over.  Over was the best part of church for me...as a little kid who would rather be on the ball diamond.

But I've grown up.  And I've learned what adults knew all along.  God isn't just about church attendance.  He is about training us to never give up hope.  Just as in the movies, Rocky, you can't put those who believe in God away.  The continued reading of Romans chapter four stresses this truth by pointing to temporarily dead Jesus only to be the found as the once again alive Jesus.

Whenever you feel that life has turned hopeless, think again.  Because Jesus broke the cemetery bonds, we carry the lively power to have rock-solid hope when all accounts seem to chant that there is none.

In all cases in all situations in all relationships, positive or negative, we hear all kinds of advice.  Surely none can be better than to hope when there doesn't seem to be any. God will unfold tremendous surprises.  He did so by emptying out the grave which was initially intended to end the existence of His Son.

When one begins to believe that everything is hopeless, it is at this precise moment that we need to think again.  With God, even the impossible becomes possible.