I recently read a story about the power of hope.

Scientists that were doing a study on how long Norwegian wharf rats could swim.  For the study, the scientists took some of these rats and placed each of them in a tub of water. They sprayed the tubs so the rats couldn’t roll over and float on their backs, but were forced to swim. After seventeen minutes of swimming the rats gave up and died.

The scientists then took another set of Norwegian wharf rats and repeated the same exact experiment. But this time, after sixteen minutes, just as the rats were about to die, they removed the rats from the tubs, dried them off, placed them in their cages, and fed them.

After a few days of allowing the rats to recover, they were put back into the tubs of water under the same conditions as the original experiment.  Only this time, the rats swam for more than thirty-seven hours before they died. The scientists concluded that the reason the rats were able to endure for a much longer period of time is because they had previously been saved which led them to hope they would be saved again.  The rats were able to swim thirty-seven hours instead of seventeen minutes because they had hope.

Recently the Holy Spirit has been highlighting the word hope in my daily Bible reading.

For instance, Colossians 1:4-5:

For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.

We all need hope because the world beats us down every day. Every morning we feel like someone has thrown us into a vat of water and is forcing us to swim until we are exhausted. We need hope that someone will rescue us–save us from the struggle.

And that is exactly what God does for us. He is there to scoop us out of the deep. He is there to give us strength when we don’t have any of our own. He wants us to know there is an end to the struggle. He has a place reserved for us in heaven.

What is especially interesting to me about the Colossians passage is that it tells me that faith and love spring from hope. Without hope I lose trust that God will see me through. Without hope, I give up on loving God’s people.

So I’m going to God for a daily dose of hope. Confidence in His strength to save me. Expectation of His loving care.

Next step: Thank God that He is always there to give us a daily dose of hope.