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Why hope is essential

Why hope is essential - despair eternal life

God intended our lives to be journeys into the unknown. Like Abraham, we are called out of the life we have known to a life we could never have dreamed existed. And I’m not talking about heaven or the afterlife. I’m talking about here and now. And even folks who don’t believe in an afterlife, at least believe in an “after now.”

All of us need something to look forward to, even if it’s just tomorrow. When we have nothing to look forward to, we end up in despair (a word that means “without hope”). We need hope like we need the air we breathe. Hope pulls us into the future, and when we realize how incredibly uncertain the future is, we can see why hope is so valuable. Yet, as essential as hope is for life, we live in a world that is constantly trying to rob us of it. Because of this, hope has become a rare commodity in our culture.

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God’s anger management plan

God's anger management program

Some interesting statistics about anger: Men lose their temper twice as often as women (men an average of six times a week, women, three). Women are more often angry at people, while men usually become angry with things (tools, delays, etc.). Single adults are likely to get angry twice as often as marrieds. The most common place for people to get angry? Home. The most likely recipients of that anger? You guessed it, the people we love the most.

Given the stakes, we would be wise to consider the Bible’s seven-step plan for dealing with anger in a constructive way:

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The waiting game

The waiting game blank clock face God's time

Are you patient? How well do you cope with long grocery lines, crowded doctor’s offices, and traffic jams? And those are easy compared to some other kinds of waiting–the single person longing for a marriage partner, the childless couple who wants to start a family, the spouse trapped in an abusive marriage who desperately hopes things will get better, the employee in a dead end job.

It’s easy to get frustrated. Waiting is hard, especially when we think something should be done, yet God tells us time and again: “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” (Psalm 37:7).