When I was about 10 years old, I worked in the fields driving a tractor for a nearby farmer. He had a late 1970s Allis-Chalmers, orange in color, and I loved the sound that the diesel engine made. It was the first diesel tractor I had driven; the old 1940s John Deere we had at home ran on gasoline.

Plowing a straight row in a long field is more difficult than it looks. If you look behind to see how you're doing, you'll pull the steering wheel, and the tractor will follow your orders, and others will laugh at your row. Well, except for the boss...

Dad taught me early on that to plow in a straight line, you needed to sight something at the other end of the field, such as a tree or a fence post, and aim the tractor towards it. Don't look behind you or to the side. Just keep the tractor heading towards that tree, and the row will come out straight.

Humans are a lot like that tractor. Where we let our mind wander, our body will soon follow. The first step to getting off course begins in our thought life. We need to protect our minds, and it is hope that does it. The Apostle Paul wrote:

(1 Thessalonians 5:8 NKJV) "But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation."

Just as a helmet protects your head, the hope of salvation protects your spiritual head. Hope is armor against the enemy's attacks. The enemy knows that a hopeless person is a weak person and easy prey. For when things get tough, they have nothing left to keep them going. They are drowning in hopelessness.

The enemy will often attack our minds, and once he has gained a foothold, he will use us to destroy our own lives and the lives of those around us. The helmet of hope, the belief that God loves us, that we still have a future, and that something good will come out of this yet, keeps us from spiraling downward when things get bad. The Apostle Paul wrote:

(Romans 15:12-13 NKJV) And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope." Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I love that: Jesus, the God of Hope. What exactly is hope?

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• Hope /hōp/ noun

• a: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

b: a person or thing that may help or save someone.

c: grounds for believing that something good may happen.

Synonyms: optimism, expectation, expectancy; confidence, faith, trust, belief, conviction, assurance.

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• And the opposite:

• Hopeless - noun:

• a: having no expectation of good or success : despairing

• b: not susceptible to remedy or cure

• c: incapable of redemption or improvement

• Synonyms: despairing, without hope, in despair, desperate, dejected, downhearted, despondent, demoralized, disconsolate, downcast, wretched, negative, pessimistic, defeatist, resigned.

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Hope and Hopelessness. One takes you up, the other takes you down. Hope is a powerful force in your life and will change your outlook from negative to positive. Soon after your attitude about something changes, so will your circumstances. The South Carolina state motto is "While I breathe, I hope." The author of Hebrews wrote:

(Hebrews 6:19 NKJV) "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast"

Hope is called the anchor of our souls. An anchor prevents a boat from drifting, not only during storms but also from the daily tides of the ocean. I can tell you from experience that a boat without an anchor will certainly drift away.

Humans are a three-part being: we have an eternal spirit, a soul, and these reside in a physical body. Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. When your hope is not in God, your soul will be tossed to and fro by the storms of life; however, when you are anchored in God and His Word, your soul (meaning your mind, will, and emotions) can find stability even in the worst of situations.

This is like putting our soul on a leash and saying you'll only go so far. I'll only get so depressed, only so far. This won't sweep me away. You'll only cry about something for so long, then you'll reel it back in.

(Psalm 30:5 NKJV) ...Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

Hope is the assurance that God is with us, guiding us, and that there's a purpose beyond our current struggles. This hope reminds us that no matter what happens, we can rely on God's faithfulness and love to get us through. He got us through yesterday, and He will do it again today.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

(1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV) "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Paul was not suggesting that Faith and Hope are unimportant. Each is different and cannot replace the other. Love cannot replace hope or faith. All three are important to us, and we should understand them. We cannot earn the rewards of faith by using hope or love.

Hope looks to the future. It is always in the future tense. Faith is now. Faith says, "I'll receive the answer right now. I have it now." It is not hoping that gets the job done, it is believing. Our salvation comes to us through faith, not hope. We do not "hope we are saved." We believe it in our heart.

(Romans 10:9 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Jesus promised that He would not turn anyone away who comes to Him but would save all who "call upon the name of the Lord." Therefore, we don't need to hope that He will save us, because He has said that He will.

Hope is beautiful and has its own place in our lives. We trust that the Lord Jesus will return soon, that the righteous dead will be resurrected, that we will see loved ones who have passed away again, and that heaven is waiting for us.

Hope reminds us that God still has a plan for us, that something good is on the way, and that this will work out for my good. It assures us that God isn't done with me yet. It helps us hold on for just one more day. It is a process of growth.

Many times, we move from Hopelessness to Hope, and then to Faith.

If we continue seeking God about something, hope will turn into faith, and our desire will become a reality. Hope is the first step in receiving "things" from God. For, '"faith is the (ownership or reality) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen."

- Faith is in the heart, while hope is in the mind.

- Faith is in the present, while hope is always in the future.

- Faith is believing that you have it right now, while hope is that it will someday come.

Imagine someone who has fallen overboard and is fighting desperately to stay above water. They are going down for the last time when a life preserver splashes down beside them, and they cling to it, gasping for air as they are pulled back to the ship. To me, that life preserver is what hope does. Hope keeps you afloat until you are standing on the ship (faith).

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for another day. Please refresh my hope and lead me into all that You have for me on this Earth. I want Your perfect will to be done in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!