“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

God wants us to have hope, which means we look at the future with positive expectations and desires.

But that’s not easy to do. After the barrage of challenges that have hit us over the last several years, research shows that most American adults look at the future with stress and uncertainty.

This is why we need the hope that God offers. God’s hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor (Hebrews 6:18-19). It does not go up and down with life’s circumstances. Even when negativity and pessimism plague us and our world, God can give us hope that assures us of brighter days and helps us endure dark times. 

The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.

Lamentations 3:19-26 NLT

We can endure difficult times as long as we have hope:

We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 CSB

Hope is essential to our spiritual and emotional lives. Jesus told his disciples that they should never lose hope (Luke 18:1), and the book of Proverbs says that the moment we lose hope is the moment our hearts wither: 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. 

Proverbs 13:12 NLT

We stay refreshed and fulfilled when we hold onto hope and dreams. But this is a spiritual endeavor, not a human one. We need God and prayer to help us not lose hope.

The Bible gives us a few simple ways to find hope. These choices require courage, as it is often easier to give up and protect ourselves from disappointment than it is to hope. Remember that each choice is brave, and when we dare to hope we will not be disappointed.

Dare to be honest

Honesty guides good people; dishonesty destroys treacherous people.

Proverbs 11:3 NLT 

Honesty guides us down good paths. We may think that it is harmless to hide how we are doing, but the Bible tells us that dishonesty destroys our lives. It also destroys our hope. We can’t be hopeful about an area of our lives that we are hiding. 

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-7 NLT

When we choose to be dishonest about our lives, we are choosing to live in darkness. In the darkness, there’s not much hope. Darkness stops us from seeing clearly. We end up feeling lonely because we can’t see God and others caring about us.

Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

Isaiah 30:12-13 NIV

Deceit destroys hope. “Depending on deceit” to handle our pain, fears, regrets, or guilt is like building a high, bulging wall around our hearts. This wall may hide our pain for a while, but it will eventually collapse. We won’t have the endurance or inner strength to handle the challenges of life that keep coming our way.

Jesus found hope in hard times by being honest in prayer.

While Jesus lived on earth he prayed to God, asking for help from the one who could save him from death. He prayed to God with loud cries and tears. And his prayers were answered because of his great respect for God. Jesus was the Son of God, but he still suffered, and through his sufferings he learned to obey whatever God says. 

Hebrews 5:7-8 ERV

He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

Luke 22:41-44 NLT

Jesus cried out to God when he needed help. He didn’t cover up his feelings or act like everything was fine. He gave God the chance to come through for him, comfort him, and strengthen him. 

One of the biggest times my hope was tested was when my mother-in-law started to lose her speech years ago. For a feisty Italian woman who loved to talk, this was a big deal. After many tests and medical consultations, she was diagnosed with ALS. The news was crushing and it felt like our world collapsed instantly. My husband and I felt hopeless knowing there was nothing we could do to help her find healing.

All we could do was be honest with God. In my pain, I wanted to blame God. Finally, after weeks of being stunned, I sat in my car one morning and cried out to God. I told him my honest thoughts, as messy as they were. I let him into my frustration and sorrow. I let him know how hopeless I felt. I broke down my walls to give God my heart. 

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Interlude

Psalm 62:5-8 NLT

To hope again, we need to pour out our hearts to God: our emotions, secrets, mistakes, emotional health struggles, heartbreaks, and our feelings of guilt. It’s physically, mentally, and spiritually healthier than powering through things and trying to pretend we’re stronger than we are. 

Dare to ask for help

Once we have let down our walls, we will find hope by asking God and others for help.

A man’s pride and sense of self-importance will bring him down, But he who has a humble spirit will obtain honor.

Proverbs 29:23 AMP 

Too much pride brings disgrace; humility leads to honor.

Proverbs 29:23 CEV

It takes humility to admit that we can’t handle the trials of life on our own. Pride makes us feel ashamed about our need for help. If we are already losing hope, our pride may inadvertently drive us deeper into hopelessness. 

When we are constantly trying to prove ourselves or grind through life on our own, we push God and people away—the very relationships that are meant to help us most in our despair and hopelessness.

When I had that honest conversation with God about my mother-in-law’s health, honesty led to humility. It gave me the courage to ask God and my friends for their help and advice.

While there wasn’t much we could do to change my mother-in-law’s physical condition, we could make an impact on her spiritually. We worked with some amazing women in our local church who became her best friends. They visited her and shared Bible studies with her. I started to feel hopeful as I saw her faith and friendships grow. Admitting that we couldn’t do things alone changed everything.

I pray that God will open your minds to see his truth. Then you will know the hope that he has chosen us to have. You will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious.

Ephesians 1:18 ERV

We need God’s help to hope. He has good plans for us, and his promises in the Bible are incredibly reassuring. Here are a few that give me hope in hard situations:

God promises to give us power in our weaknesses.

Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT

God promises to care for us.

Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime- until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

Isaiah 46:3-4 NLT

God promises to answer our prayers.

I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!

Isaiah 65:24 NLT

These promises of God do not change. They are always available to us, and when we are humble we will look to them for hope instead of trying to handle life alone.

Dare to help others find hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 NIV

Once we have been honest and humble with God, he will fill us with hope that overflows. We can then take a third courageous step: helping someone else have hope. God will give us more than enough comfort and hope because he wants us to share it with each other. 

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT

When we find purpose in our pain, our hope in God will grow stronger. We will see God working for the good in every detail of our lives, which will build our faith in him. 

This contagious hope is what happened with my mother-in-law. Having women in her life who were honest about their own lives—all their pain, struggles, disappointments and weaknesses—led to my mother-in-law growing in her own honesty and humility. These women then helped her find hope in God. Together, they were able to show her through studying the Bible how God was allowing her health limitations to bring her closer to him. At the age of 72, she made a decision to get baptized and become a Christian. 

Not only did my mother-in-law’s hope grow through this time, but so did the hope of all of us around her. As we saw God work through each of us in a very difficult situation to transform her life, our trust in him grew. 

There are people in each of our lives that need us to notice them, to love them, and to give them hope again. Our hope will grow when we share it with others.

Final thoughts

No matter what stage of life we’re in or what life throws at us, we can know with certainty that with God, we can always dare to hope. As we honestly and humbly ask God for help, his promises will fill our lives with hope that overflows to people around us.