Where Are You Placing Your Hope?

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. - Psalm 146:3-5

Have you ever gotten your hopes up for something, and then you ended up being disappointed and let down? If I had to guess, you probably have. But if by some miracle you’ve escaped that not-so-great feeling up until this point, trust me, it’s coming.

I promise I’m not a pessimistic person. In fact, I’m usually the optimist in my group of friends. But even I, the girl who always believes there’s going to be a happy ending, understand that disappointment is just a part of life. 

People let us down. Jobs let us down. Goals and dreams go unfulfilled. There’s no getting around it. However, while disappointment is inevitable, it doesn’t have to happen as often as it does. In fact, we can avoid a lot of disappointment, pain, and heartbreak if we learn how to not misplace our hope. 

You see, when we misplace our hope onto someone or something that is not equipped or capable of fulfilling our hopes and expectations, we are going to be let down. It would be like if you tried to carry a pile of bricks in a plastic grocery bag. You toss in one brick after the other until the bag is full, but when you go to pick up the handles, the bottom of the bag rips open and all the bricks fall out. That happens because that kind of bag was never designed to be able to carry that kind of weight.

However, if you were to try to transport the bricks in a wheelbarrow, you would have more success. The wheelbarrow is bigger, stronger, more durable, and it was actually designed to carry and move objects like bricks. 

The same goes for when we misplace our hope. If we pile our hopes and expectations onto our boyfriend, our career, our social media following, our best friend, or anything else besides God, we’ll always end up disappointed because those things and those people were never designed to carry and fulfill our hopes and expectations.

Thankfully though, if your hope is in the Lord and you are trusting Him to take care of you, provide for you, and love you perfectly, He can handle all of that. He is big enough, strong enough, and powerful enough to carry it all, which is exactly why you should place your hope in Him above anything or anyone else. 

With all of that in mind, I want you to ask yourself this question: “Where have I placed my hope?” If it’s in anyone or anything other than the Lord, my prayer is that you would recognize that and ask the Lord to help you root your hope in Him instead. He is more than capable of handling whatever hopes and expectations you give Him, and He will never let you down.