A friend tells me the secret to staying strong through illness and pain. This friend stays sick six months of the year.
“I used to pray for hope and focus on the future. I just didn’t want to feel hopeless.”
Praying for hope sounds good to me. I think of all the ways I put my hope in a future reality that something might change.
But she reveals that hope alone isn’t the answer for her.
“I pray for hope and the ability to be thankful in the midst if it.” She smiles. She shines.
Hope plus a thankful heart sounds like a better equation to me. And it’s a gift from God–something we cannot muster from self-will.
We ask for hope and thankfulness, no matter what.