The few bookstores that are still open are bulging with self-improvement titles that have certainly paid off for their well-heeled authors.  Their tempting promises include “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” and “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”  I get it -- if I have good fortune, these happiness hucksters contend that I myself must make it happen.

The late George Carlin got it: “I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said, “If I told you, that would defeat the purpose.”

Hope is a many splendored word.  There’s aspirational hope, as in “I hope I win best-in-show.”  There’s emotional hope, as in “I hope she’ll say ‘yes’ when I propose.”

And there’s biblical hope, a well-grounded expectation that relies on God’s promises, as in “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

What are you hoping for?  How sure are you that it will come to pass?


“And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?  My only hope is in You.”  Psalm 39:7