Joyce Meyer: Hope is one thing we all desperately need
If there is one thing everybody desperately needs, then that is hope, according to popular Christian speaker and author Joyce Meyer.
Meyer has encountered so many people from the last 38 years she has spent travelling and teaching God's word. Some people are fortunate enough to be doing great, while others are barely getting by. On the other hand, there are many others who are "dealing with circumstances so difficult that, quite frankly, they felt defeated and overwhelmed by life," she said on her website.
Meyer said that everybody battles hopelessness at some point in their lives, and because of this, hope is one thing we all truly need. Hope is powerful, she said, and it has more power than a motivational thought or a fading daydream.
"Hope is a nothing-is-impossible-with-God firestorm refusing to be quenched. It's an awareness that God is actually expecting, looking and longing to show you His goodness," she further explained.
And it is hope that stabilises people's thoughts and emotions, she said, and an awareness that there is no problem big enough that God cannot rescue you from it.
Meyer says she cannot blame people who are worn down by hopelessness, because it is inevitable that people lose hope when they encounter overwhelming loss, repeated failures, impossible situations, or are hurt by people they trust. But when people have a serious relationship with God and begin to understand His Word, real hope is not far from reach.
At the same time, Meyer urged people to never assume that their past is already as good as it gets, because it will definitely get better in the future. Even though the future's prospects seem impossible, she reminded Christians that nothing is impossible for God.
Meyer even said that people should be excited by hope because they have an important role to play in it.
"You don't have to sit back, just waiting for an answer to fall from the sky. You can take your hopes to God, ask Him for His wisdom, and then take real and practical steps toward your goal," she said.