Gina’s Rainbow Drawing Devo:

What is hope? Poet Emily Dickinson once described it as “. . . [the] thing with feathers, that
perches in the soul- and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” A certain
villain once said it was “the only thing stronger than fear.” Since he was trying to control
people, he also noted that “a little hope is e ective, a lot is dangerous,” since it might lead
people to think they could revolt against his tyranny. Finally, Hebrews 11: 1 describes faith as “.
. . assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen,” which also invokes hope.

Whatever hope is, it seems to be a thing that everyone wants and needs.

Have you ever felt devoid of hope? Or else just generally empty? Most of us have.

When that happens, it’s natural to wonder what the solution to that feeling might be. The
answer is complex and does involve some things we can do to help ourselves, but it mostly
has to do with the Holy Spirit. If you believe, or want to believe, in God, then the Spirit is your
source of hope. He is what was left to us after Jesus left our physical world and is our link to
both a relationship with God and to hope. We can only achieve both of those things by
spending time with Him. Through praying, studying the Bible, and discussing it with others in
order to understand it, we can develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit and get to know Him.
Once this becomes a relationship rather than a set of head knowledge, our hope can start to
come from Him and not be circumstantial.

God gave us a beautiful symbol of hope in form of the rainbow. He revealed a rainbow to Noah
after the great ood and said it was His promise that He would never ood the Earth to
destruction again. This is a beautiful symbol of why a relationship with God or the Holy Spirit
leads to great hope: because God’s promises can be trusted. He keeps His promises to us, so
we can count on them. That is the most comforting thought of all when one concludes that
they can trust Him with both their life now and with their future eternity. If one doesn’t have to
worry about eternity, then what here is worth losing hope over? Things are never that simple,
but those are greatly comforting thoughts.

What does hope mean to you? What is something speci c that gives you hope? What is an
example of someone who inspired great hope in others in history?

“Dear God, please grant us hope and help us to remember that You should always be our rst
source of it. If you are our source of hope, we do not need any other source. And please help
us to grant hope to others. Amen.”

Romans 15:13
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