We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For over a year I have been trying to think of a name for a ministry I desire to start for single moms with disabled children, believing in my heart that I am called by God to do so. For a long time, I thought of calling it the Snowflake Project, or The Snowman/Snowwoman Project. Why? Because disabled children remind me of snowflakes. Each is different, delicate, and beautifully designed by God. If you know ten different autistic children, you only know one autistic child… none resemble the other. Alone, disabled children can be fragile, but together as a community, they can build into something strong and vibrant. I never tire of watching a special needs child, with their individual disabilities, and usually complex medical issues, grow, learn, and personify the unconditional love of Christ.

Due to political issues, I decided not to focus on the snowflake image. I waited for God to enlighten me.

The other week I was driving somewhere doing one of the hundred things I do as a single mom of an autistic child. There are always appointments, phone calls, paperwork to fill out, and battles to fight. I’m a highly visual learner so I love to, cautiously, sightsee while driving. I can’t even remember where I was when the road sign caught my eye. It was truly an epiphany! It was an intuitive grasp of reality, simple but striking. The road sign read… Good Hope Road.

For eons, the word, hope, has been overused. Not in meaningful terms, but in pointless, superficial ways.

I hope it doesn’t rain.

I hope (fill in the name of your favorite sports team) wins.

I hope I win the lottery!

The good hope is not a blind wish, such as, Hope you have a nice day! Although our intentions are heartfelt, we are just wishing that the day goes well for someone and that they don’t have to deal with the daily normal battles of this world. But the good hope is the hope of God, and everything from God is good. Randy Alcorn says, “To many of us, “hope” sounds wishful and tentative, but biblical hope means to anticipate with trust. We expect a sure thing, purchased on the cross, accomplished and promised by an all-knowing God. Scripture offers solid ground for our hope in Christ.” 

The good hope is unwavering. Paul says it in Romans 15:13. I still haven’t decided which version I like best. They both are encouraging and inspiring…

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. (NLT)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises. (AMP)

Abound in hope?

Overflow with confident hope?

Why do we walk around with wobbly hope?

Not only do we have a book [several versions] readily accessible to us, which is spilling over with hope – God’s Word, but we also have our own lives to look back on.

In the book I am writing, Waves of Gratitude: Seeing God’s love through the darkest storms, I am amazed at what God did in my life, how He rescued me, and how He has used the occurrences as an inspiration to me, and to others on this journey. Did I have hope back then in the dark days? No… the choices I had made had me spiraling down into an empty abyss. I didn’t have a measure of hope. In a series of events, I was reminded of Jesus as a shepherd – guide, protector, healer – whom I had accepted as a child. I moaned in complete emotional and physical brokenness. Jesus reached down with His loving, forgiving hands, and pulled me up out of the miry clay (Psalm 40:2). No one is too hopeless to be rescued.

God will take your tiny spark of hope and your mustard seed size of faith and make it into something spectacularly amazing. I am a living, walking, breathing testimony of His goodness and forgiveness. Those experiences have grown my faith and deepened my hope.

I am not always hopeful. As Paul also says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14/NIV)

Paul was saying, don’t look back on your failures, keep moving forward towards your calling. I agree with that, but I think it is important to look back and see how God used those failures and wrong turns for your good and His glory.

In a eulogy, titled Glorious Together (October 11, 2012), Pastor John Piper, sharing from Romans 15:13, said there are Six Steps for Abounding in Hope. These are the highlights:

1. The God of Hope – Everything begins with God. If there’s no God, there’s no hope. So, we start with God.
2. The Word of God – All the passages of Scripture, all the promises of God. Believe those.
3. The Spirit of God – If you hope more in God than in physical things or the future, then your hope comes from the Holy Spirit.
4. Faith in God – Simply believing.
5. Joy and Peace – You have joy and peace when you Rejoice in the Lord always. (Philippians 4:4)
6. Abundant Hope – Joy and peace do not produce hope. You are not going to have joy and peace without hope. If you are a hopeless person, where would joy and peace come from? Abundant hope brings joy and peace.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to follow the good hope road. Oh, it’s a good hope road because it’s a journey. I have stories galore of God’s faithfulness and, I believe that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). I have already experienced abundant hope and goodness! Haven’t you?

Give God your spark of hope and your mustard seed of faith and watch what He will do. You can be confident that He will give you the strength and the wisdom, with joy, to face whatever may come. You too can have abundant, overflowing, confident good hope.