Lord, Be My Hope Today.

Monday, 18 May 2026Psalm 71:5

Illustration

Scripture

Psalm 71:5·WEB Translation

For you are my hope, Lord; my confidence from my youth.

Devotional

Hope Is a Person

I think I've spoken about it in a previous devotion, but I love The Chosen. It's really helped me to visualize so many of the stories about Jesus.

There's one episode that I wanted to talk about in today's devotional, which is the one that follows the woman from Mark 5, the one who had been bleeding for twelve years.

I've read the story plenty of times. But there's something about seeing it played out that made it land differently.

The years of the illness. The constant washing of clothes. The difficulty in getting work. The doctors, the dead ends. By the time she hears that Jesus is nearby, she has tried everything available to her and gotten worse, not better. Seeing her talk with Mary really brought home how hopeless she was.

And yet she presses through the crowd anyway.

I think I misunderstand hope a lot of the time. I treat it like a feeling, something I either have or don't have on a given day. Or I confuse it with optimism, that natural tendency some people have to assume things will work out.

But she wasn't optimistic. She had tried everything and gotten worse. There was nothing left to be optimistic about.

What she had wasn't a feeling. It was a Person.

David puts it plainly in Psalm 71:5: "For You are my hope, Lord; my confidence from my youth." Not You give me hope when I need it. Not You help me feel more positive.

You are my hope. God Himself is the hope, not a resource He supplies, not a feeling He tops up when you're running low. The Person.

That's helped me a lot when I'm feeling hopeless. If hope is a feeling, the work is internal - search harder, try to think differently, will yourself into a better headspace.

But if hope is a Person, the work is simply to turn toward Him. To stop trying to manufacture something and instead return to Someone.

That's what she did. She didn't reach for a feeling. She reached for Him. And He stopped. He called her daughter. He told her that her faith had made her well. She pressed through without certainty. She reached out without a guarantee.

She just turned toward the One who is hope itself and moved.

Lord, be my hope today.

Enjoying these devotionals?

Prayer

Lord, be my hope today, not hope as a feeling I try to conjure but hope as a person, Jesus Himself, my reason to keep going, my light in the darkness, my confidence when everything suggests I should give up.

I need hope I don't currently feel, hope that doesn't come from circumstances looking promising but from You being present, faithful, unchanging, my living hope who walks beside me.

Teach me that hope isn't something I feel but Someone I know, that when feelings of hope disappear, Jesus my hope remains, constant regardless of what shifts around me.

Today specifically, I need You to be hope for me, to fill the places where hopelessness has settled, to be the reason I can face what feels overwhelming.

Help me stop measuring hope by my emotions and start anchoring it in Your presence, to find hope not in improved circumstances but in the person of Christ who never leaves.

Remind me that You've been hope for people in darker places than mine, that hopelessness isn't the final word when You're present, that You specialize in being hope when there seems to be none.

Give me moments throughout today where I sense Your hope rising in me, where despair lifts slightly, where I catch glimpses of possibility because Jesus is my hope.

Let me experience today that You are my hope, not an emotion I'm waiting to feel but a person I already have, sustaining me when I have no natural reason for optimism, being the hope I cannot manufacture on my own.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Journaling Prompts

Q.When hope feels far away, what do you usually try to do to find it?
Q.Is there something you've been waiting to feel hopeful about before you bring it to God?
Q.What would it look like today to turn toward Jesus instead of trying to find a feeling?
Q.How does "You are my hope" land differently from "You give me hope"?
Q.Where in your life right now do you most need to press through toward Him?

Art Print

If this devotional has spoken to you, the full 8 × 10″ art print is available to bring into your home. It’s printed on quality art paper, unframed and ready to place wherever you need a quiet reminder that the Lord is your hope. You can find it in my shop, with free shipping included.

Shop Print →

Facebook Pinterest Instagram Email