When Alexander the Great crossed into Asia he gave away almost all of his belongings to his friends. One of his captains asked him, “Sir, what do you keep for yourself?” The answer of the king was, “I keep hope.”
Whatever else you lose or give away, so long as you keep hope you are keeping life’s most valuable asset. Hope is to man what oxygen is to the lungs, what water is to a fish, and what sunshine is to a plant. A famous cardiologist said, “Hope is the medicine I use most of all. When a person has had a heart attack, I immediately try to give him hope.”
God once took the prophet Ezekiel out to an ancient battlefield. The field was littered with bones of soldiers that had bleached in the Syrian sun for many years. As Ezekiel watched, God caused flesh to grow on the bones and then he breathed life into the dead corpses. God was teaching Ezekiel that there is always hope.
We sometimes say, “Where there is life, there is hope.” But God says, “Where there is death, there is hope.” As long as God is not dead, hope is not dead. As long as God is alive, hope is alive. With God nothing is impossible.
No matter what happens, don’t ever give up hope. God is still at work in the world.