Day 9: Psalm 71:14
“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.”
I think David was a man of great faith. He went through so much before He became king, and even as king, he faced challenges—some very painful, especially within his family. Yet from his youth, he chose to hope in the Lord.
“For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.”
Then later on in the same chapter, he says:
“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.”
Hope is a choice. We can choose to give up and live life our way. We can choose to rely on things other than God to get things done. And it may even work for a while. But there is something that hope in God adds to the whole equation.
Strength. Peace. Joy. All flowing from a relationship with a loving Father—a faithful God in whom we can trust.
Picture this: a couple has a beautiful wedding, and as the day comes to an end, they smile at each other, full of hope that their relationship will succeed. Each person places a measure of hope in the other, and this hope comes with expectations. With time, however, because these hopes lack a firm, eternal foundation, cracks emerge. Hoping in a fallible human being will always lead to disappointment.
Hoping in God, however, never leads to disappointment—especially when we put our hope in Him not because of what He can give us, but because of who He is: a loving, caring Father who gave everything so that we could have a relationship with Him.
Reflection
Can you confidently say you will always have hope in God? Like me, do you sometimes place your hope in things other than Him? Let’s remember that He gave His very best—His only Son—so that we could have a relationship with Him.
Prayer
Lord, I desire to place my hope in You at all times. I sometimes struggle with this, though, and I ask that You help me understand how deeply You love me and how much You long for us to share a deep relationship. Help me to confidently declare that I will always have hope in You. Amen.