What Do You Hope In When Everything Else Lets You Down?

What You’ll Learn

• Understand why so many of the things you count on keep disappointing you, and what to do about it
• Find a kind of hope that holds up even when you’re facing a diagnosis, an empty bank account, or a loss
• Discover how to stop waiting for your circumstances to change before you can feel at peace

Introduction

Everyone lives by hope. We hope the job works out, the money holds, the kids are okay, the test results come back clear. But if you’ve ever had those hopes crushed, you’ve probably wondered whether there’s anything you can count on that won’t fall apart. This page looks at where real, lasting hope comes from and why it’s different from simply hoping things turn out fine.

Why does it feel like my hopes always get let down?

At the start of every football season, every team is 0-0 and every fan has hope. Then reality shows up, and a lot of those hopes end in a 51-0 loss. The late comedian Norm Macdonald joked that the big problem with hope is that it always gets dashed. It’s funny because it’s true. We all put our hope in things that can be dashed: money, health, relationships, our kids, our careers, our plans for the future. None of those things are bad, but none of them are constant or fully reliable. So the real question isn’t whether you have hope. All of us live by hope. The question is, what are you putting your hope in? The Bible points to a hope that doesn’t depend on how the season goes.

Can people who already believe in God still lose hope?

Yes, and the Bible expects it. In Ephesians 1, a letter written to early Christians, the apostle Paul prays that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you” (Ephesians 1:18). Notice who he’s praying for. These were people who already had faith. Paul uses the same kind of language we often use when praying for someone to find God for the first time. That’s intentional, because even believers forget where their hope truly is. Our hearts are constantly looking for something else to lean on. We say things like, “I’ll be okay when I have enough money,” “I’ll be happy when my kids are happy,” or “I’ll finally have peace when this problem is solved.” Those are hopes placed in things that can let us down.

What do hard times reveal about where my hope really is?

When something goes wrong, we find out exactly where we’ve been putting our trust. In the Old Testament story of Jonah, a violent storm threatens to break apart a ship, and “all the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god” (Jonah 1:5). In Mark 4, Jesus’ own followers are caught in a storm on a lake. Waves are breaking over the boat, Jesus is asleep, and they wake him up asking, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38). The storm didn’t create their fear, but it did reveal it. Storms work the same way in our lives. A crisis shows us what we really worship and where our hope has been placed all along. That can be uncomfortable to see, but it’s also an invitation to put our hope somewhere better.

Is it okay to go to God even if my faith feels small?

It is. In that storm in Mark 4, Jesus’ followers were afraid, and Jesus even asked them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). Their faith was shaky. But here’s what they got right: they still went to Jesus. They went straight to the source of their hope. You don’t have to have it all figured out, feel strong, or be free of doubt to bring your fears to God. A little faith goes a long way when the storms come. What matters most isn’t how big your faith feels in the moment. What matters is who you bring it to. If you’re in a storm right now and your faith feels small, that’s okay. Take it to Jesus anyway.

Does having faith mean pretending my problems aren’t real?

No. Christian hope is not pretending that suffering isn’t real. It’s acknowledging that suffering is very real, but it isn’t ultimate. The Bible says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). That doesn’t make the pain smaller. It puts it in a bigger story. The diagnosis may be real, but the diagnosis is not ultimate. The empty bank account is real, but that’s not ultimate. Death is real, and the grave is real, but it isn’t ultimate, because Jesus rose from the dead. Just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of a great fish, Jesus spent three days in the tomb. And when he walked out, he left behind an empty tomb and gave us a living hope.

Why is it so hard to hope in something I can’t see?

Because what we can see often feels louder than what we can’t. Pain, bills, a hospital report, a loss: those things are right in front of us. The Bible names this tension directly: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24-25). Honestly, a lot of us hope only in what we can see. But the hope God offers isn’t located in your circumstances. It isn’t in things that are temporary or things that can be taken away. It’s found in Jesus. In the opening verses of Ephesians 1, Paul uses the phrase “in him” or “in Christ” over and over. That’s the point: your hope is anchored in a person, not a situation.

What does it mean that Jesus is “above every name”?

In Ephesians 1, Paul describes God’s power, the same power that “raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). In plain terms, Jesus is Lord over everything. That includes everything we’re tempted to put our hope in, and everything we’re tempted to fear: money, health, death, your future, your failures, and even your eventual grave. Whatever it is, Jesus is above it. He isn’t just one more option on the list of things you might hope in. He is Lord over all the things on that list. That’s why hope in him holds when everything else shifts.

How is hope in Jesus different from wishful thinking?

Wishful thinking depends on how strongly you hope. Christian hope depends on who you’re hoping in. It isn’t positive thinking. It’s grounded in something that already happened: Jesus died, and the grave could not hold him. God won by losing. And because of that, the Bible speaks of your future as certain: “those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Ephesians 1:14 describes God’s Spirit as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” An inheritance isn’t something you earn. You receive it because you belong to the family. Through Jesus, God brings you into his family, and what belongs to Jesus is shared with his brothers and sisters. His resurrection becomes your resurrection. His inheritance becomes your inheritance. His glory becomes your future. That’s a hope that can’t be dashed.

Key Scripture

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”

Ephesians 1:18-21 (NIV)

This is a prayer that people would truly see the hope God offers, a hope backed by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It means the God who conquered death is greater than anything you’re facing, and your hope in him rests on something that cannot be taken away.