Hope is an amazing, beautiful thing. It is one of the strongest forces in the world that can pick us up when we are down and carry us through some of the toughest times in our lives. However, it can also be very difficult to have hope and to hold onto it when things in our lives aren’t exactly going as planned.
I’m sure that you can think back to times in your life when things seemed chaotic, upside-down, and just downright awful. Yet I’m sure you can also think of times when hope entered the situation and turned it around; when hope allowed you to view your situation in a different light and think that things might not be so bad after all.
The truth is that God’s Word is absolutely full of hope. After all, the core message of the Gospel is the best hope that there is; hope for eternal life in the presence of our loving God. But there are also plenty of other stories within the Bible that show the power of hope, even in times of struggle or hopelessness.
These biblical stories and Bible verses will show you the power that hope in God can have in your life against whatever uncertain times you are facing. No matter what it is that you are up against, one of the first things you should remember is to have hope in God, just like the people in these stories. Let’s dive right in and see what the Word of God can tell us about hope.
7 Bible Stories About Hope in Hard Times
Having hope is easier said than done, especially when it comes to having hope during hard times in your life. Luckily, there are plenty of amazing stories within the Bible that show examples for us to follow of how to have hope during hard times. Here are a few of them.
1. Hope to be Healthy: The Woman Healed by Jesus
In the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament, we see a beautiful story of faith, hope, and trust in Jesus. There are many stories like this within the story of Jesus, but this particular story is of a woman who had suffered from an ailment for a very long time. The Bible describes her this way:
“And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” [Mark 5:25-26, ESV]
If anyone had reason to give up hope and be bitter towards God about her situation, it was this woman. Even if you were to put aside the time that she had spent suffering from this ailment, she had also spent all of her money, seen many different doctors, and was getting worse instead of better. She had all reason to give up hope. Yet that isn’t what we see happen in this passage.
Instead, we read in the Bible that she had heard the good news of what people were saying about Jesus, and, having faith in his great mercy and power to heal, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. It says that she believed that if she even touched his garments, she would be healed.
This is exactly what happens. She touches his garment and she is immediately healed of her ailment. What healed her? Jesus says to her:
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” [Mark 5:34, ESV]
It was her faith and hope in the Son of God that led to her healing. Although she had every reason to be angry and lose hope, she held onto it, even in the toughest of times.
2. Hope & Redemption: Naomi and Ruth
The events that we read about in the book of Ruth are beyond powerful. I encourage you to go and read the book for yourself (it’s only 5 chapters), but allow me to summarize it quickly for you.
A man from the tribe of Judah, Elimelech, had a wife, Naomi, and two sons. During a time of famine, they went and stayed in the land of Moab, but while they were there, Elimelech died. His two sons, left with their mother Naomi, took Moabite’s wives, Orpah and Ruth, but they also ended up dying, leaving Naomi alone with her two daughters-in-law.
After these things took place, Naomi decided to return to Judah but told her daughters-in-law that they should return to their families. However, Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law’s side and went with her to Bethlehem. There, she determined to turn her situation around, and her hope and determination led her to be married to a wealthy and godly man named Boaz. This hope even led her to be a part of the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah.
The story laid out in the book of Ruth shows us that even when things hit rock bottom and you feel like giving up, you should always have hope that things will turn back around. After all, we know from Romans 8:28 that:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [Romans 8:28, ESV]
3. Hope to Walk: The Paralyzed Man and His Friends
In Mark 2:1-12, we find one of my personal favorite stories of hope and faith in the story of the paralytic and his friends. In this passage, we read that Jesus was with a crowd in a home that was packed to the brim. It says that there was no more room in the house, not even at the door.
However, there were four men nearby who were bringing a friend who was paralyzed in hopes that Jesus would heal him. When they could not get in through the door, their hope and faith in Jesus made them determined to find another way in. They removed the roof above where Jesus was to make an opening and lowered their friend down through the ceiling to reach Jesus.
It says: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” [Mark 2:5]
Jesus took note of the faith of these men and the hope that they carried within themselves to help their paralyzed friend. This is yet another testament to the true power and determination that comes from hope to turn around a situation.
Bible Stories About Characters in the Bible Who Lost Hope
Although we should always have hope in God and in the possibility of our situation turning around, we also have to realize that this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, we lose hope. Sometimes, we find ourselves feeling hopeless and lost in whatever situation we are in. We aren’t alone. Various characters in the Bible found themselves in that space as well. Let’s take a look at their situations.
4. Reigniting Hope: Elijah’s Despair
In 1 Kings 18-19, we read another of my favorite stories in the Bible that shows God’s love towards us when we lose hope as well as his ultimate power.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah the prophet gets into a power struggle with the prophets and high priests of Baal. The people of Israel are once again playing with idolatry and other gods and Elijah is determined to set them straight. So, they set up a sort of display of power to see whose God is real and, therefore, more powerful, and the God of the Bible shows up in a big way to show Israel that he is still very real and that God’s power is very great.
In the aftermath of this power struggle, the prophets of Baal are all slain by Elijah and the people of Israel, angering Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah, threatening him with death and causing Elijah to run for his life into the wilderness.
It is at this time that Elijah hits rock bottom. He has lost all hope to the point of just wanting to die. 1 Kings 19:4 says:
“And he asked that he might die, saying, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’” [1 Kings 19:4, ESV]
However, he takes a nap and an angel comes to him from God to give him food and minister to him two different times. It says that because of this, he was able to rise and go on the strength of what he was given to Horeb, the mount of God.
Even though Elijah was at his end, God ministered to him and reignited his hope. Even when we lose hope, we can trust and have faith in God that he will minister to us and reignite our hope once more. God never gives up on us; let us never give up on him.
5. Hope for a Child: Hannah, Samuel’s Mother
Another amazing story of lost hope being regained is found in 1 Samuel 1, where we read the origins of the great character of Samuel in the Bible. His mother, Hannah, had no children before Samuel. In fact, the Bible tells us that the Lord had closed her womb. As if this wasn’t worse enough, the Bible also tells us that her rival, her husband’s other wife, would provoke her and irritate her because she was not able to have children.
You can imagine that Hannah, at this point, had probably lost all hope of having a child. Especially considering the fact that in those days, a woman’s worth was linked to her ability to bear children, this would have been a devastating thing for her to live with. However, even in a hopeless situation like this, the Lord turned it around with amazing results.
The Bible says that while she was deeply distressed, she prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She vowed to God that if he gave her a son, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life. Then it says, the Lord remembered her, and she bore a son. She named him Samuel and this young man went on to become an amazing servant, prophet, judge, and wise leader of Israel.
Even though she had gotten to the point of giving up hope, she still trusted in the Lord and petitioned him through prayer diligently. In God’s timing, her request was granted, and she bore one of the most influential figures in Israel’s history.
6. Hope in Dark Times: Esther
The story of Esther sounds like one out of a movie. Yet it is ultimately one of hope, courage, and trust in the God of Israel that he will preserve his people.
The story begins when Ahasuerus, the king of Persia, banishes his queen, Vashti, for disobeying the throne. A new queen is chosen: Esther, cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai, a Jew. However, Mordecai has an enemy within the king’s court named Haman who decides to plot not only Mordecai’s death but also the deaths of all the Jews.
With Esther’s new position as queen, Mordecai pleads with Esther to try and intercede for the Jews and thwart Haman’s plan to get them all killed. To do this, Esther will need to come before the king without being summoned to persuade him against Haman’s plan.
In the end, she takes this courageous step and not only reverses the king’s edict to kill the Jews but also persuades the king to hang Haman on the gallows that he had built to hang Mordecai.
This story is an interesting one as God isn’t mentioned a single time. However, it shows the value of not giving up hope even in the darkest of times. In the face of possible extinction, Esther and Mordecai took a step of courageous faith and saved their people by the grace of God.
The moral of the story: God always preserves and saves his people, even in hopeless situations. The same is true of God’s people today. This concept of hope still rings true and we can have confident hope in our heavenly father, even when we don’t necessarily know for what reason God is doing certain things. Regardless, we can place our hope in Christ Jesus in our own lives to uphold us and sustain us, just as he did in these Bible events.
Bible Stories About Hope in God
To have hope in the face of uncertain futures is a good thing. However, it’s also important to make sure you have hope for the right thing. Of course, as Christians, we are called to have biblical hope in God’s promises and in his character.
7. Hope in Dark Times: Job
Perhaps the greatest Bible story that holds the most gravity when it comes to the topic of hope in God is that of the Bible character Job. In the book of Job, we are told that Job was blameless and upright. It says that he feared God and turned away from evil. He was also extremely wealthy and had a large family.
One day, Satan came before the Lord and asked the Lord’s permission to test Job, saying that if he were to take away all that Job had, Job would curse the Lord. The Lord permits Satan to perform this test and Satan carries it out without pulling any punches.
Satan proceeds to take away Job’s servants, possessions, and even his children in awful and gruesome ways. Yet, what was Job’s response in the face of all that had happened? Surely he would have cursed God. Yet instead, we read:
“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” [Job 1:20-22, ESV]
After this, Satan even takes Job’s very health away from him. He becomes deathly ill to the point that his wife tells him to just “Curse God and die”. Yet even in this, Job did not sin with his lips and refused to curse God or forsake his hope in him.
The story is much longer and I would encourage you to go and read it for yourself, but the fact of the matter is, we can learn from Job and all of these other people whose stories are told in the Bible a very important lesson. It doesn’t matter how hard things get; you can always place your hope and trust in the Lord, in the good times, and the bad. He will always come through in his timing and all things will work together for your good when it comes to God’s plans.
In all things, place your hope in the Lord and he will fulfill his promises time and time a