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Having Hope

Romans 8:18 

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” 

Recently my mental health has been at an all-time low. With that comes anxiety, overthinking and constant pessimism. In times like this, it feels easier to give up with everything rather than simply enduring. A constant thought that has entered my mind is that “it will always be like this” and “you will always feel this way”. These are all lies from the enemy to stop me from having one thing: hope. 

Hope is one of those things that is talked about from a very theoretical standpoint. We say things like “stay hopeful” or “keep having hope”, but what does that look like when you feel like your whole world is going to end? What does hope look like when you struggle to talk to God, struggle to read your bible, struggle to do anything.  

Looking at the verse, we see that there is a comparative element when it comes to hope: “present sufferings” and “glory”. Our “present sufferings” are circumstantial and may look different to different people, but what are we placing our glory in? Anything other than God leads to an instability in our hope. Hope starts with the positioning of our minds: placing what we are hopeful in higher than what we are going through.  

I also wanted to focus on the fact that the verse says, “present sufferings”. Our stresses, worries and anxiety have an expiration date, and though at times it may not feel like it, they do indeed end. Our futures are written by the most sovereign author, and we can hope in the fact that whatever we are going through is only temporary in the joy that is coming.  

I do believe there are brighter days on this earth, and future joy that waits for us, but I also think it’s important to not let that cloud an even greater, more fulfilling hope. The “glory” that is talked about in the verse is heaven, and what greater hope is there than to spend eternity with the everlasting father? 

 

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