Hope that is bigger than...

    What if the hope in your heart is bigger than the negativity surrounding you? Have there been times when the situation you were facing was so challenging that even family and friends encouraged you to give up? Not because they didn’t want a breakthrough for you but because they just couldn’t see your deliverance.
    Maybe it wasn’t family and friends, but the situation itself was so negative, so hopeless, so discouraging that you made the decision to give up. You know what God’s Word says and God may have even spoken a Word to you but that giant just seemed too big for you to handle. Maybe so much time had elapsed that you made the decision to give up, believing that maybe God wasn’t going to do it after all.
    Whatever your situation, the reality is that God did not create this life without including hope. Even from the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned, God had already made provision for man’s redemption: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis  3:15) 
    There are many stories in the Bible about hope. In fact, when you think about it, the Bible is God’s gift to man, reminding us that we have hope in Him to face whatever comes our way. One of the many stories that come to mind is the story in the New Testament about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). She had suffered with a blood issue for twelve long years. She had used up all of her financial resources trying to get help from various doctors but at the end of it, she still could not be healed. 
    It can be a difficult thing when you use up all of your resources trying to help yourself but nothing works. It’s discouraging when no one or nothing you turn to seem to have the answers you need. I imagine this is how that woman felt  -  discouraged. Every time hope glimmered through a doctor or medication she was told could help her, it was devastating, I am sure, when nothing worked. To see her finances dry up must have been the last straw. 
    Let’s face it, when you have the money or the material resources to help yourself, you feel encouraged. But when things don’t work out and all your resources are used up, that can be devastating. It can be difficult at that point to hold on to hope, especially when your hope lay in what you had in your hand. But when your hands are empty and options are non-existent, what do you do?
    It was at this point, that Jesus entered the picture. When the woman thought she had no hope left, stories she may have heard about Jesus’ miraculous healings caught her attention. That glimmer of hope rose up in her again. But it wasn’t just a glimmer. This woman was an outcast, considered ceremonially unclean according to Jewish custom, because of her bleeding issue. But when she heard about Jesus, I imagine that that hope became way bigger than just a glimmer. Somehow she expected that her answer had finally come.
    At that point, her hope in Jesus was bigger than her sickness, than her depleted finances, than her rejection, than the consequences of breaking Jewish custom. And she was not disappointed! Before, her hands were filled with what she could do to help herself but these had failed her. Now, when she touched the very edge of His garment, her hands - and entire body - became filled with all she needed from the One who could do the impossible!
    When our hope in our God is bigger than what we are going through, bigger than the opinions of others, bigger than the reality of our situation, like that woman, it gives us the motivation to push past everything to reach the One who has the answer we need. In Christ, you are never without hope, no matter how big your giant may be. 
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God is the God of hope and when we put our trust in Him, He will not fail us!

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