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Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” ~ Proverbs 4: 23 _________________________________________________ AN INVITATION TO YOU: To follow this blog via Facebook, click here. If you are not on Facebook or would prefer to subscribe via a different venue, please check the sidebar to the right for subscription options. Thank you! __________________________________________________ Wherever I turn, I find people who feel hopeless. Be it a teenager whose parents just divorced or an elderly person without a family, people everywhere struggle with despair. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is currently the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. On average, 121 people kill themselves every single day. That is 121 too many! But suicide isn’t the only epidemic in the United States. Millions of people suffer from depression and depression-related disorders, like anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders, bipolar disorder, and phobias. This should not be. Yet it is. But why is it? I would posit that many of these problems stem from a loss of hope, and a loss of hope stems from the lack of a deep, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 6: 19 that hope is “an anchor for the soul.” In other words, hope keeps us stable and positive in the midst of obstacles. Hope keeps us looking ahead toward a better tomorrow. Toward the day when Christ will return and usher us into the eternal realm where all suffering will cease. But while we are here on this earth, God wants us not only to survive, but also to thrive. And in order to do so, we must have hope. But our hope must be in the right place. The only right place for our hope is in Jesus Christ. To hope in anything outside of Christ is to hope in vain, for only Christ is the Solid Rock on which hope can stand. Much of our disappointment in life comes from the fact that we have hoped in the wrong thing or the wrong person. Perhaps we have placed our hope in a spouse or a child only to be disappointed in that spouse or that child. Perhaps we have placed our hope in a job or a career, only to be disappointed in that job or that career. Perhaps we have placed our hope in a friend who has betrayed us or a parent who has let us down. Whatever the case, when we place our hope in imperfect human beings or in imperfect human situations, our hope will falter. But when we place our hope in the Perfect God, our hope will never fail. In Psalm 39: 7, King David asks this question: “And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?” David answers his own question when he says: “My only hope is in You.” David knew that the only safe repository of his hope was God. The same is true for us. When we place our hope in God, we will never be disappointed. Perhaps you are listening today and you are feeling hopeless. Perhaps your life has crumbled and you don’t know where to turn. Perhaps you have even contemplated suicide or have already made arrangements to kill yourself. If I am talking to you, then I urge you to give yourself another chance. You see, Satan wants to destroy you because you have a great purpose in God’s plan, and Satan wants to keep you from fulfilling that purpose. If you were not important to God, Satan would have no need to get you to feel hopeless or to kill yourself. But you are a threat to Satan, so he wants to eliminate you—to take you out of the picture. He does this by stealing your hope. Without hope, we see no reason to go on. So, if Satan can steal your hope, he can steal your life and your blessings. God, on the other hand, wants to give you life not steal it from you. He wants to give you hope and peace and every good thing. But in order to receive the hope that God wants to give you, you must receive it from His hand. You must, in short, come to Him. God is waiting for you to do that now. Today, if you are feeling hopeless,