Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
11 4 2026
HOPE: Bigger Than Me. Bigger Than This.
What is hope? No, let me ask that differently. What is hope to you? What is it you are hanging on to when times are hard? Not those faded dreams of the American Dream. Not the things you once thought would make life complete. I’m asking about your hope eternal. When you have nothing else, during those moments of, overwhelming or almost complete despair, when everything around you seems to be slipping through your fingers, where does your hope come from?
Deep inside yourself, what is still holding you together?
You are a Christian. Is thankfulness tied to hope? Is appreciation for the many gifts God has given you tied to the hope of our salvation, and the hope we carry for those we love? Can we be grateful for what God has already done and what we already have, while still struggling to believe Him for what lies ahead? I have faith that we can. In fact, perhaps that’s where some of our deepest hope is born. Not in having all the answers, but in remembering the One who has never stopped loving us.
When we are young, we look for the shape of things, some kind of design that makes sense. And it is so easy to lose our way. We make mistakes, not necessarily earth-shattering ones, but decisions that chart a course. Sometimes those decisions grow roots so deep we cannot see their effects until we are much older. (An then we are entrenched to some degree…even comfortable.)
We are all looking for purpose, perhaps even a destined path toward a Scripture we didn’t know back then. Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. As distant as that unknown verse was to me back then, somehow it was already attached to that thin level of faith I carried.
Maybe just enough faith to begin seeing His light as time went on. Even though I couldn’t see it then.
Isn’t hope about a second chance? Or a third? Or seven times seventy? Isn’t learning to focus part of hope? Zeroing in on a Savior for this moment, this day, asking Him for just enough strength to keep pressing in and pressing on. Hope in Him. Faith in Him. Believing beyond what we can see, understand, or even imagine. Believing that He is bigger than me. Bigger than this. Bigger than everything threatening to overwhelm me. Not because our troubles aren’t real, but because our God is greater than the troubles we face.
We don’t need better ideas. We need to believe the ones we already have. His words inscribed in our souls, written upon our hearts, spoken with authority into circumstances that seem to have the final word. Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Then why do we so often speak defeat over a life God has not finished writing? We must speak life! Why would we settle for less? Isn’t hope learning to love God more deeply because of His faithfulness to His commitments? If He truly knows what is best for us, isn’t it time we let Him be that? If He is the Hope above all hope, isn’t it time we step into a higher truth? His perfect love. His perfect calling. His promises and His gifts that do not expire when our circumstances change. (love, joy, peace, understanding).
But how do we keep hope alive and thriving through the ups and downs of living? We begin by talking honestly with God. Not polished prayers designed to sound spiritual, but real conversations about our fears, disappointments, struggles, and needs.
We return to His Word, even when we don’t feel like reading it. Romans 15:13 calls Him the God of hope, who fills us with joy and peace as we trust Him. Hebrews 6:19 describes this hope as an anchor for our souls, firm and secure. Think about that. An anchor doesn’t remove the storm. It holds us when the storm is trying to carry us away.
And what about gratitude? Worship? Fellowship? These are not religious activities we check off a list. They are ways we keep our hearts connected to the One who gives us hope.
We need people around us who will remind us of God’s truth when we are struggling to remember it ourselves. Friends influence the direction of our faith. Some draw us closer to Jesus, while others pull us toward the very things He is trying to free us from. We must learn which relationships strengthen our hope and which ones slowly drain it away.
And shouldn’t sincere hope eventually turn outward? We know what hopelessness looks like. Despair. Discouragement. Weariness. Loneliness. People desperately needing someone to care. Sometimes the very thing that renews our hope is reaching into someone else’s darkness with the light God has given us. Maybe it isn’t a big light, but it is enough light to make a phone call. A prayer. A meal. A few minutes of listening when someone has run out of words. Isn’t that putting shoe leather on our faith? Making hope more than something we talk about?
Hope isn’t a fantasy. It isn’t a fairytale. It isn’t wishful thinking dressed up in religious language. Hope is a truth of God, just like faith, forgiveness, love, and joy. It is a gift from God, something we can hold on to when everything else seems uncertain. It points us back to His Word, the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). It doesn’t promise we will never walk through darkness. It promises we don’t have to walk through it without Him.
And here’s what I want you to grab hold of today. You may not get back everything you’ve lost. Some dreams may never unfold the way you imagined. Some prayers may still be waiting for answers. But your hope was never supposed to rest on everything turning out the way you wanted. Your hope rests in the One who has promised never to leave you. And when that truth begins to move from something you know in your head to something you believe deep in your soul, something changes. The joy of the Lord becomes your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Not because life suddenly becomes easy, but because you finally understand that you are not facing it alone. (there is unimaginable peace there).
Maybe the fulfillment you’ve been reaching for isn’t as far away as you thought. Maybe it begins with surrendering what you cannot control and trusting the One who holds what you cannot see.
So let me ask you one more time. What is hope to you? What are you hanging on to?
And if everything else were stripped away, would Jesus still be enough?
I pray we discover that He is. Not someday, when life finally makes sense. But today.
Right here. In the middle of whatever we are facing.
Because our hope is not that everything will work out the way we planned.
Our hope is that God will remain faithful to everything He has promised.
My prayer is that these devotionals do more than give you something to think about… that they draw you closer to Jesus Christ, deepen your love for Him,
and encourage you to live out your faith.
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