Hello all! I've recently attended the launching of Project Do Hope which was held at Luther Centre Petaling Jaya.

During the whole course of the event, people of all ages, races, and religion talked about the three things below:

1. What is Hope to you?
2. What do you Hope for?
3. What will you do to make that Hope come true?

It struck me that, hope is actually God's gift to us. It motivates us, and gives us a drive to be better, it keeps us hanging on.

As for some of us, hope is what is keeping us alive. We might be going through darkness now, but the belief that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel of darkness, that is hope.

Hope is also a desire. Some people desire for better financial situations; some people desire for love. That is hope.

Some people might scoff and say, hope is just something people make up to comfort themselves. It may be true. Some of us do hope for things we cannot achieve.

But without hope, we will never have a goal in life. We will never set our minds and hearts on a road to travel on.

As Christians, what is our Hope? Moreover the question, who is our Hope?
Many of you already know the answer - Jesus.

Jesus, is God's gift to us. Jesus is the Hope for salvation. The Hope for mankind. The Hope for us to go to heaven and not perish in eternal doom. The Hope for us to be with our Creator forever.

Yet, we are only human. In so many times in our life we often stumble and fall. And when we do, we give up on hoping. However, we must never forget that Jesus will never ever give up on us.

Hope-timists: People who choose to keep on believing in spite of the evidence, and watch the evidence change.

Hope can only co-exist with faith. If we do not believe, we will not hope.

It is easy for us to say that we hope in God when life is easy. But can we say the same when we are facing trials and temptation?

God is not nearly as interested in changing circumstances as He is in changing people.
- Why We Act The Way We Do.

Many of us flunk the test of faith. When hardship comes, we complain to God that the circumstances are unfavourable for us to keep hoping. But it is in these times that hope is most needed as is faith.

God allowed us to go through this, as Zechariah 13:9 says
I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"

Ultimately, what we are going through is only going to make us BETTER and GLORIFY GOD.

The Christian life is never a race, it's a marathon. Hope keeps us believing that God will bring us through to the final destination. And if we believe, He definitely will :)

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

God calls for us to hope and rely on Him. Just a thought to ponder on, do we hope? Do we put our hope in God?

Never give up on Hope. Do Hope.

Counting on God,
-Shu Run.