Hope
Hope is the certainty your future will be better than your past and present. Despair is when you give up even wanting to hope. What form does despair take for you?
Hope
Hope is the certainty your future will be better than your past and present.
Elizabeth and Zechariah gave up hope in a child. She was barren. She was past age.
To them, all hope was gone.
You can even say Zechariah was to despair. Despair is when you give up even wanting to hope.
Despair takes many forms. For Zechariah, despair was cynicism. A “yeah, right,” response to the angel.
So, to prove “Yeah, right,” Gabriel made him mute for the length of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.
How does despair show up for you?
Going through the religious motions? Because sitting in a pew or chair is easier than hoping something can be different just to be disappointed again.
Serving just because that’s what you’re supposed to do? Because not rocking the apple cart is easier than getting slapped down again.
Harboring a secret sin? Because you’ve come to think petting the lion is exciting.
Hope looks forward to a future that is better than your past or present. When you hope in God, you’re willing to walk through the valley of the shadow of death because he is with you rather than you walk through green pastures without him.