The Search for Hope: Part 1

When you really think about it hope is a funny thing isn’t it?

I mean it is hard to tangibly identify hope in our lives. Every one of us looks for hope in different places. Some of us look for hope in relationships, some in financial security, some of us look for hope in achievement or recognition.

And if you are a follower of Jesus than there is also a part of many of us that seeks to find hope in our relationship with God.

Hope is a tricky thing. For many of us it seems like an ever-elusive mirage that we just cannot reach. For others hope may seem like a distant memory.

But in reality, hope is the very thing that lifts us up. Like a balloon, hope is that thing that pulls us up no matter what the circumstances of life.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about hope?

The other day I was standing outside a hospital in Pittsburgh and for many people that place is an axis point of hope in the community.

For some people it is the very place where they will lose hope. In conversations with doctors they will learn that their body is failing, that they are sick and at that moment they may begin to loose hope.

For others this hospital is a place of great hope. For couples, who have longed to have children this may be the day that they welcome new life into our world. For these people, this is the place where hope has just begun.

Every one of us knows what it feels like to gain and lose hope in life. Don’t we?

In the book of Job chapter 6 we see one of the great laments in scripture. Job is wrestling with the loss of hope in his life and in verse 11 he says, “What strength do I have, that I should still hope?” “What prospects, that I should be patient?”

In this verse Job shows us that our hope is often found in the things that lie ahead and when they are removed it often leads to the loss of hope in our lives.

Everyone of us knows what it feels like to lose hope don’t we? Maybe it was a relationship that you thought had a future but didn’t last. Maybe it was a promotion that you hoped would provide for your family but never came? Maybe it is a physical aliment that has limited your life and taking away some of your dreams.

We all know what it feels like to lose hope.

Read through the lament of Job in Chapter 6:1-11.

Describe a time in your life when you were full of Hope?

Describe a time in your life when you have lost Hope?

How would you describe the status of Job’s hope?

What has lead to this?

Have you ever written a lament like this? When?