Hold Onto Hope

 "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." 

Romans 12:11-12 ESV

A few summers back, I sat on my couch recovering from a pretty nasty knee injury and surgery. One day, in particular, stands out in my mind. I was watching my beloved Arkansas Razorback Baseball team in the finals of the College World Series. It was the bottom of the ninth, they had the lead, and there were two outs. One more out and they would make history as the first Razorback Baseball team to win a National Championship. They not only carried their hopes and dreams that day but the hopes and dreams of a whole state. The other team was not going to go quietly, the last batter hit a pop up into foul territory and there were three Razorback players in the vicinity of the ball and no one caught it.  The ball fell in between three of our boys and you could just see the light go out when that ball hit the ground. They would go on to lose game two and lost game three by a large margin. It appeared that when that ball hit the ground they lost all hope. And that's I learned that when hope is gone, the drive to compete, the energy to play hard, and the courage to face your fears all fade into oblivion.

Hope is a powerful word. It has the power to motivate. The power to inspire. It also has the power to inspire us to do great and seemingly impossible things. The human heart needs hope, and God's promises fuel that hope. Just as a smell of chicken frying in your grandma's kitchen promises of a good meal to come, God's promises tell us of the blessings He waits to give us.

When we - like the players in that championship game - lose hope, we become disheartened. Life is hard and our enemy is relentless. He knows that he is going to lose at the end (The Bible tells us so) but he never gives up. We have to stay in the game because we know who wins in the end and Jesus promised us everlasting life if we remain steadfast. Not only do we have His promise that the victory is there for the taking, but we also have hope in the fact that God wants to save us. He provided us with the gameplan. He tells us how to win the game of life. We need only seek salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, and He has given us His word to cling to when the clock starts to run out and the game gets close.

We all know this game of life is demanding. We all get tired and when that happens we get lazy and can become disheartened. But if we will keep our eyes on Jesus, our hope for today and for eternity, He will save us. We just need to hold onto hope and be constant in prayer.