May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope-Romans 15:13

We are obsessed with finding happiness and purpose. If we reach this, life will be perfect. The problem is, happiness is an emotion, not a state of being. People often confuse it for joy: the contentment in any situation. God never promised we would be happy. He never promised life would be easier after we received salvation. In fact, Jesus even says that we will suffer for His sake, for His name. The devil absolutely hates it when we follow and cling to God so closely and, believe it or not, he has power. And he will surely use it to try and trip us up, thus creating obstacles of every variety in our path.

Now, here is the crux. We value our emotions, and rightly so. And, hopefully, we process through them and select the right course of action depending on our situation. But do we give our emotions too much power? Do we let them obscure our hope in the God of hope?

We are blessed beyond measure. We can be content in knowing this world is not our home. That these problems will pass. These obstacles can be overcome. We have a God who is constantly fighting our battles for us and He has already secured victory on the Cross of Calvary and the Empty Tomb.

The real problem is we see this hope as false optimism. Many think this kind of hope is dedicated to devaluing our current situation and room for growth.

But it is not .

This kind of hope is the only thing we can hold onto in the dark places. This kind of hope is what we should rejoice in the good places. This hope is in something, someone better and bigger than our problems, than our sin, than our shortcomings.

So no, I'm not telling you to be happy because God is who He is.

I'm saying, have hope. Not a forced smile and can-do attitude.

Have hope that you will survive. Have hope that you can succeed. Have hope that His promises are being fulfilled every single day.

Jesus' return is more assured than tomorrow.

Be broken. Be humble. Be desperate.

But, do not despair. Do not dwell. And most of all, never give up hope.

Because then you give up on God and put Him in a box. We minimize what He has done and is doing.

Life is hard; this is the truest statement just about everyone can relate too. We should never just say "shake it off" or "don't worry, be happy," because that is not reality.

Hope is real and it is within our reach. We just have to choose if we're going to hold on to it.