Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

A Promise You Can Hang Your Hopes On

by Rick Warren

Hope is as essential to your life as air and water. The truth is, you need hope to cope.

Hope comes from having a purpose.

If you have felt hopeless, hold on! Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose. God says, “I know what I am planning for you.… I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NCV).

You may feel you are facing an impossible situation but the Bible says, “God… is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20, LB).

You were made to have meaning. When life has meaning, you can bear almost anything. Without it, nothing is bearable. Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. In the Bible, many different people expressed this hopelessness. Isaiah complained, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing”  (Isaiah 49:4, NIV).

Job said, “My life drags by – day after hopeless day”  and “I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense”  (Job 7:6, LB; Job 7:16, TEV). The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.

But God says, “I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for”  (Jeremiah 29:11, MSG).

That’s a promise you can hang all your hopes on!