{"id":7118,"date":"2026-10-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=7118"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:18:29","slug":"hope-in-a-hopeless-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=7118","title":{"rendered":"Hope in a Hopeless World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Today is the day the Lord has made\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"709\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-709x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7119\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.692394639108671;width:255px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-709x1024.jpg 709w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-768x1109.jpg 768w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-600x867.jpg 600w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-1063x1536.jpg 1063w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-1418x2048.jpg 1418w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-1320x1907.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hope.churchartpro-scaled.jpg 1772w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will rejoice today because I have something most of the world doesn\u2019t have. I have hope! Hope is one of the big three Christian principles: faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s difficult to have hope in a world filled with poverty, war, hunger, epidemics, hatred, and the ability for one crazy person to push a button that will annihilate civilization as we know it. No wonder people &nbsp;are hurting and uncertain about what the future holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A groundbreaking study from the University of Missouri shows hope may be even more essential to well-being than happiness or gratitude. They found that hope isn\u2019t just wishful thinking\u2014it\u2019s a powerful emotional force that gives our lives meaning. Hope is a feeling the future will be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Believe it or not, hope is as necessary to the human spirit as oxygen is to the physical body. When we lose hope we are overcome with despair and lack of purpose. Without hope we lose all desire to go on. Our problems overwhelm us. Not having hope can literally destroy our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christians have hope. Hope is not something that magically appears. It comes from Christ living in us (Colossians 1:27). Christ is our hope (1 Timothy 1:1). Our hope is connected with our relationship with God. When Jesus died and was resurrected, we were begotten into a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-5). We have an inheritance that will not fade away. Our future is secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cHappy is he\u2026whose hope is in the Lord his God.\u201d ~Psalm 146:5<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the day the Lord has made\u2026 I will rejoice today because I have something most of the world doesn\u2019t have. I have hope! Hope is one of the big three Christian principles: faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=7118\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7120,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7118\/revisions\/7120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}