Learn to Have Hope—No Matter What

Hope can sometimes elude us when we are struggling. Deanna Bartalini offers Scripture and a prayer to help us live in the hope Jesus won for us.

Hope is one of the theological virtues, along with faith and love. As we encounter difficulties in our life, no matter the size, we may struggle to have hope.

And then we may beat ourselves up about our lack of hope. And then we start to despair and maybe feel guilty and not trusting God, and it’s a downward spiral into hopelessness.

I want to avoid that spiral. I’d like you to avoid it as well. How can we learn to have hope no matter what?

First, what is hope? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this:

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (CCC 1817)

Two points to look at carefully: place our trust in Christ’s promises and rely on the grace of the Holy Spirit. We don’t need to rely on ourselves! What a relief.

Where do we find Christ’s promises? In His Word. Here are three passages that I think are helpful:

He set me free in the open; he rescued me because he loves me. (Psalm 18:20)

Say to the fearful of heart: Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you. (Isaiah 34:4)

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

What do you hear in those verses? God loves us. And in that love, there is the certain hope that he saves us, protects us, and is close to us. In Isaiah, when it says that God comes with divine recompense, this means that our restoration will be beyond our expectations. It is divine, and what God gives is always more than we expect.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul reminds us that we cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

There is our HOPE!!!!! And, to quote a priest’s homily, Hope has a name. It is Jesus Christ.

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Hope can be hard to hold onto.

It helps me to remember these truths about hope:

We hope for what we don’t have and can’t see.
Sometimes, it is difficult to hope.
We can have hope by relying on God’s undeniable power.

Here is a beautiful prayer from Charles Peguy that you can pray when you need a boost of hope.

Act of Hope

My God, I hope with a firm confidence that you will give me, by the merits of Jesus Christ, your grace in this world, and, if I observe your commandments, your glory in the next, because you have promised it to me, and because you are supremely faithful in your promises.

Do you need more hope? What is God telling us?

I encourage you to pray with Psalm 18, Isaiah 35, and Romans 8:31-39. From those passages, choose at least one verse that reminds you to have hope. Write it on a few post-it notes and put them where you can see them; pray them often, allow them to sink in, and infuse you with hope.