Where's Your Hope?

"Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24

This verse starts out talking about endurance. Our lives are going to have ups and downs, but God reminds us to be of good courage because He is the One providing the strength we need to get through. And then there's a little comma that leads into the next part --- "all ye that hope in the Lord."

Hope is so easily misplaced these days. (I would venture to say that hope has been frequently misplaced since sin entered the world.) We often put our hope in other people. And then those people fail us or disappoint us and we are left feeling lost, weak, abandoned, and misguided. We put our hope in material things and those things fail because they break, malfunction, or don't meet our expectations. Then we are left feeling cheated, defeated, and worried about what could possibly be reliable.

Do you see the pattern here? When we put our hope in anything but God, we will suffer the lack of peace that results. This verse could not possibly end without the phrase of "all ye that hope in the Lord," because the promise that God will strengthen us when we are of good courage is contingent upon our ability to put our hope in the Lord!