Hope means something different when we have to trust—when nothing has changed and the answer is still hidden from us. We can talk about hope. We can agree with God about a word of promise, but our understanding has not expanded.

We respond like Sarah when the Lord appeared to Abraham and told him that he would father a child with her, though both were well advanced in age and she was past the age of childbearing. 

Out of sight, but listening in on the conversation, Sarah laughed silently to herself, thinking “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” Then the Lord asked Abraham, “why did Sarah laugh…? “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son” (see Genesis 18: 10-14). 

We are learning to wait with expectancy, even when we don’t see or feel anything happening. Even when the odds are completely against us. Even when years have gone by and we’ve had to face our doubts and fears and frustrations. 

To put my hope in God and in His promises, believing that nothing is impossible with Him is my plan for today.