Quotes About Hope

At the time of the crucifixion, the disciples couldn't see how anything good could result; similarly, as we face struggles and trials and suffering, we sometimes can't imagine good emerging. But we've seen how it did in the case of Jesus, and we can trust it will in our case too. For instance, the greatest Christians in history seem to say that their sufferings ended up bringing them the closest to God—so this is the best thing that could happen, not the worst.

it's at least possible that God is wise enough to foresee that we need some pain for reasons which we may not understand but which he foresees as being necessary to some eventual good. Therefore, he's not being evil by allowing that pain to exist.

moral character gets formed through hardship, through overcoming obstacles, through enduring despite difficulties. Courage, for example, would be impossible in a world without pain. The apostle Paul testified to this refining quality of suffering when he wrote that 'suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.'13

Hope is] the unswerving belief that better days are ahead, probably in this world and most certainly in the next.

If Jesus overcame the grave, he's still alive and available for me to personally encounter.

How we face death tells us a lot about how we'll face life.

God gives us just enough evidence so that those who want him can have him. Those who want to follow the clues will.

you are the sum total of all the life experiences you've gone through. You may wish you had chosen another path, but you didn't. You've been shaped by the many choices you've made, both the smart ones and the dumb ones. And here God is saying that he can take the raw material of who you are right now and customize a future of hope for you.

We live in a broken world; Jesus was honest enough to tell us we'd have trials and tribulations. Sure, I'd like to understand more about why. But Kreeft's conclusion was right--the ultimate answer is Jesus' presence. That sounds sappy, I know. But just wait--when your world is rocked, you don't want philosophy or theology as much as you want the reality of Christ. He was the answer for me. He was the very answer we needed.

One writer referred to the problem of pain as "the question mark turned like a fishhook in the human heart.

even if I were to actually lose everything - my house, my finances, my friends, my reputation, my position - it really wouldn't matter in the end, because I would still have God's grace. I would still be the Father's adopted and beloved son. And that would be enough.

Once in my life I knew a grief so hard I could actually hear it inside, scraping at the lining of my stomach, an audible ache, dredging with hooks as rivers are dredged when someone's been missing too long.

You never like it to happen, for something as hopeful and sudden as a January thaw to come to an end, but end it does, and then you want to have some quilts around.

I prayed the Lord would sort (my prayers) out and answer as needed. Above all that he would hurry.

You can't explain grace, anyway, especially when it arrives almost despite yourself. I didn't even ask for it, yet somehow it breached and began to work.

In times of dread it's good to have an old man along. An old man has seen worse.

From my first breath in this world, all I wanted was a good set of lungs and air to fill them with... p 1

How could we not believe the Lord would guide us? How could we not have faith? For the foundation had been laid in prayer and sorrow. Since that fearful night, Dad has responded with the almost impossible work of belief. He had burned with repentence as though his own hand had fired the gun. He had laid up prayer as if with a trowel.

My weary old ground was broken and watered, and what sprang up was a generalized longing.

And who doesn't long for the door in the air.

Once torched by truth, Swede wrote years later, a little thing like faith is easy.

Love is a strange fact-it hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things. It makes no since at all.

We all dream of finding but what's wrong with looking? When the sun rises we'll know what to do.

It made me think of Penelope waiting for Odysseus—Penelope at her loom, not missing a trick, lumpen suitors everywhere.