The Gift of Hope

Hope is a priceless gift from God. It is a gift that grows as our faith in Jesus Christ grows.

We all hope for various things. Some of you may hope for a new friend. Maybe you hope for new clothes or a new car. We should all hope for the many great spiritual blessings that are available to each of us. There is an unlimited number of things we can hope for.

Sometimes, what we hope for is beyond our control and can take a very long time. Recently my friend was asked to meet a grandchild she hadn’t seen for 20 years. During those 20 years, however, my friend had prayed for this grandchild every day. When my friend finally met her grandchild, the grandchild was happy and doing well. My friend thought this was an answer to her devoted prayers. And these prayers came from their hope that all could be well. We should never stop hoping and praying for what is right and good. You never know when what you are hoping for may come. Often, hope requires work and perseverance. Don’t ever give up!

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, apostle of Jesus Christ, once told a story from his family history. “Toward the end of World War II, my father was drafted into the German army and sent to the western front, leaving my mother alone to care for our family. Though I was very young, I can still remember this time of fear and hunger. We lived in Czechoslovakia, and with every passing day, the war came nearer and the danger grew greater.

“Finally, during the cold winter of 1944, my mother decided to flee to Germany, where her parents were living. She bundled us up and somehow managed to get us on one of the last refugee trains heading west. Traveling during that time was dangerous. Everywhere we went, the sound of explosions, the stressed faces, and ever-present hunger reminded us that we were in a war zone.

Along the way the train stopped occasionally to get supplies. One night during one of these stops, my mother hurried out of the train to search for some food for her four children. When she returned, to her great horror, the train and her children were gone! She was weighed down with worry; desperate prayers filled her heart. She frantically searched the large and dark train station, urgently crisscrossing the numerous tracks while hoping against hope that the train had not already departed.

[Although desperate, my mother’s] faith overcame her fear, and her hope overcame her despair. She was not a woman who would sit and bemoan tragedy. She moved. She put her faith and hope into action. And so she ran from track to track and from train to train until she finally found our train. It had been moved to a remote area of the station. There, at last, she found her children again.” Uchtdorf concluded, “Hope… is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances.”

The Apostle Paul taught that the scriptures were written, “that we might have hope” (KJV Romans 15:4). Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness KJV (Psalm 146:5). The delay of something hoped for can “make the heart sick” (KJV Proverbs 13:12).

Hope is a gift of the spirit (Moroni 8:26). We are sustained by the hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection that we shall have immortality and eternal life (Moroni 7:41).

Throughout the Bible it is written that hope gives us peace, mercy, rejoicing, and gladness.

The hope that can transform us “centers on the Hope of Israel, …our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. [It is] the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance” (Uchtdorf).

The prophet Nephi taught, “Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.” (2 Nephi 31:20).

There is no limit to Jesus’s capacity to help us, and the best is yet to come! We should never give up. Because we can always trust Jesus, we can always have hope.

Kerry Wright has lived and worked in the Mat-Su Valley since 1991. He enjoys hiking, biking, fishing, and all things Alaska. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.