“Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”
Research shows that you experience life primarily through your feelings, and then you process it with your thoughts. From there you make the daily decisions which culminate in where you are today.
Everybody faces daily challenges, and for most of us, it can get wearisome. It’s hard to feel strong when you’re chronically tired. It’s hard to think of yourself as courageous when there is so much to worry about. And hope? That seems like a dream amidst all the bad news we get bombarded with each day.
But it’s precisely when you’re worn out that strength is most needed, and when anxiety is prevalent that the call to courage is so crucial. It’s when times are toughest that our strength and courage can be revealed best, not when times are going well.
What are the challenges you are facing in your everyday life? What are the areas you wish you were stronger in? In what circumstances do you wish you were more courageous? With your health? Your family? Friends? The community? Our nation?
The Psalmist reflects on the role of hope in helping us be strong and courageous. Not hope in general, but hope in the LORD. When you face injustice, when life is unfair, when friends disappoint you and family saddens you, the Psalmist invites you to put your hope in the LORD. [Psalm 31:24 Good News Bible]
When your hope is in the LORD, you trust that he hears you, that he listens to your complaints, that he knows your situation, and that he is with you in it. When you hope in the LORD, you’re trusting that he is at work to bring good out of the difficult situation.
This kind of trusting hope can sustain the strength and courage to keep doing what is right. It can undermine the despair and bitterness that creeps in, and keep us from turning sour and cynical as you try to right what is wrong in the world.
Hope in the LORD does not prevent all of our sufferings, for we live in a beautiful but broken world where every living thing will die. Hope does enable us to be healed from the brokenness and it can magnify what is beautiful in life.
Jesus suffered in this beautiful yet broken world, and it was his hope in the LORD that enabled him to forgive those who betrayed him, bless those who tortured him and love those who hated him.
Of course, this was not easy for Jesus. It was with blood, sweat, and tears that he prayed for strength and courage to endure the coming crucifixion. It was prayer sustained by hope in the faithfulness and love of the LORD.
Don’t try to feel strong or courageous, don’t try to feel hopeful.
To be strong, to be courageous, to be hope-full in the LORD are all actions. It’s how others will describe you as they observe you doing the hard work of not despairing, of forgiving, of persevering in justice, mercy, humility, and joy.
How can you become more hope-full in the LORD?
It helps to hang out with others that are also hope-full. Learn from them, talk it out with them, watch them, pray with them.
Together, be attentive to the presence of Christ in your life. Trust that the LORD is with you, always working for the restoration of all things in your community.
Read the gospels of Jesus being strong and courageous, and that of the apostle Paul in the New Testament. Read the stories of the prophets in the Old Testament too.
Take a moment to give thanks throughout the day for what is going well, and ask others for help when it’s getting tough trying to do what is right.
You can also make this your breath-prayer, let it be on your mind and in your spirit throughout the day: “Be strong, be courageous, all you that hope in the LORD.”
