The Power Of A Half Hour DevotionalExemplo

Sustain Hope in 30 Minutes

On my journey with God, I’ve discovered several strategies for energizing hope. First, reading His Word every day instructs, reinforces, and encourages me. In a half hour I can read several psalms, which demonstrate the power of God to overcome the world, or passages from any of the other Bible books God has preserved for us.

Second, when I take a half hour to ponder my salvation—the freedom purchased for me at the cost of Jesus’s life and the eternal opportunities promised to me—the immediate attitudes that emerge are hope, joy, gratitude, and peacefulness. I never want to take for granted the incredible sacrifice that He made for me, or lose sight of the fact that God tells us that His plan for us provides a future and hope.

Third, when I spend my time praying that the Holy Spirit will have complete control of my life, hope abounds within me. God honors that prayer, and the burdens of the day are no longer mine; there is hope in the release of control to the omnipotent One. And that, of course, enables me to recognize the power of opportunities and the impact that He provides, as I described earlier. When you consider that provision, hope swells within your heart.

Hope is one of the greatest gifts that God gives us. But sometimes you have to work at getting it into your head and heart. Circumstances sometimes overwhelm us, and as a result we lose sight of the big picture of life. Learning how to restore hope in our hearts is an invaluable skill.

I don’t struggle with a sense of hopelessness very often; working on having an attitude of hope and joy seems to block out the blues. But every once in a while I succumb—but not for long, because I have a few tried and trusted ways of defeating feelings of despair. You can too, if you invest a half hour of time into recalibrating your attitude.