Hope Springs Eternal!

Is there anything sadder to witness or more debilitating to experience than hopelessness? When we lose hope and spin into despair, we can feel as King David did in Psalm 40:2 (NKJV) when he lamented having been in “a horrible pit.” The problem with feeling hopeless is that it puts us in a mental state of being trapped with no way out and nowhere to go. Alexander Pope famously wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.” This proverb was intended to convey the idea that humans will never stop believing that things will improve.

So, how can we encourage others who feel like giving up to consider hope, even if their circumstances won’t immediately change?