Holding Onto Our Hope When Our Hopes Fall Flat

“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

I was certain it would be a yes. An exciting invitation to be considered for a sacred task rooted in my heart – it seemed to line up with the exact sort of thing God would ask of me. I prayed over it. I asked for it in Jesus’ name. I dared to picture what it would be like. Doesn’t He do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine?

And then the news came, and a hope I’d dared to move into in my heart fell flat as I heard, “No.”

I wonder, what “no” are you holding? What are you clinging to that hasn’t come to pass? What hope are you wrestling up from the ground?

This time of year, as we plan and prepare for holiday events and gatherings, our list of longings and hopes may unintentionally grow longer. And our collection of “no’s” can become so heavy that we find it hard to walk with Jesus.

Our unrealized hopes can trip up our hope.

Let me acknowledge that our little “h” hopes can be really big. What we pray for and hope for may be scriptural. Our longings may align with the Kingdom of God. We know we can come boldly before Him as we pray for reconciliation, healing, and provision. We hold hope for what God can do because we know He is able. In the diagnosis, in the hardship, and in the rejection, our desires are for restoration, redemption, and renewal. We know and have the faith that God can do what we ask – because He does more than we can ask or imagine. Miracles still happen every day. In my own little family, we’ve seen so very many.

Yet sometimes, we find ourselves holding a “no.” What we pray and what transpires don’t match what we ask or imagine. Even though we may be praying for good and godly things, our understanding of what we ask or imagine is still limited by what we can ask or imagine.

One of the ways we hold onto hope is to examine and understand where our hopes reside:

– When we pray, are we placing our hope in the outcome or in our Hope-bringer?

– Are we standing on the hope of a specific result, or are we standing on God as our Hope no matter the circumstance?

We can unwittingly place our faith in the fruition of our “side-dish hopes” instead of our “main-dish” God.

That “no” I shared about earlier wasn’t a dream I dreamed. An invitation found me, and I grabbed hold and prayed big prayers. And I know it would have been a good and holy opportunity – but it was a side-dish hope.

Instead, inside the “no” came a lesson that matters far more. When I read “no” in that email (and yes, the tears of confusion sprang to my eyes), Jesus whispered, “Trust me.“

He invited me to trust Him still, even in the no.

That “no” changed nothing for Him. His plans for us remain the same before and after the no. But how I receive the “no” has the power to change me.

How we receive the “no” has the power to change us all. And some of our no’s are really big and really hard, like when the scans aren’t clear. Or they aren’t coming home. Or we aren’t the one.

In the no, where do we place our hope? Because in the no, God is still the source of our hope.

In Romans 15:13, we read, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him…”

Even when we’re tired, even when we don’t see a way, even when we’ve been holding on for years, our trust brings hope.

When we choose to trust God, He will fill us with hope.

The rest of the verse reads: “… so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” (Romans 15:13).

When we pray our big prayers to God while also holding our hands open with trust, not only do we make room to hold hope, but Paul says we can overflow with hope. Our true Hope is not bound by what our minds and hearts ask or imagine. Our hope in God can hold firm even when our hopes fall flat.

Here are three ways we can hold onto our hope even when:

1 | Trust Jesus before and after the answer.

Through the no, through the yes, through the dry, through the fruitful, Jesus wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe that He has everything worked out for our good. And our trust is built in reaching for Jesus. We find our Hope when we reach for His hem.

2 | Thank Jesus for what He has already done.

Our trust in Jesus is bolstered through visiting our “banks of testimonies,” as Beth Guckenberger calls them. We each have within us a holy record of what He has already done in our lives. As we remember those deposits and place them alongside the testimonies we read in the pages of our Bibles, and we thank Him for all He has done, our trust grows again.

3 | Hold confident hope for what He will do.

As we enter the holidays, continue through a challenging season, and settle into unexpected news, we can overflow with confident hope in what He has planned. We don’t find our hope in perfect families or holidays. We don’t find our hope in open doors or yes’s. We find our hope in knowing that Jesus has already gone before us.

When our hopes fall flat, may we hold tightly to His promises that He will redeem us (Ephesians 1:7). He will rebuild what has been ruined (Isaiah 61:4), and He will restore what has been broken (Psalm 147:3).

When we cling to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith, we can also know God as the source of our hope, joy, and peace. He is our rest.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15: 13 NLT)