Finding Hope at Rope’s End

When we think about rope, sometimes we think about Mohammad Ali’s famous “Rope a Dope, ” or the saying that if we give somebody enough rope they’ll hang themselves. Then there is the infamous soap on a rope, but let’s not go there.

Today I want to give you something else to think about when you reach the end of your rope, and that is hope. 

You have to have hope.  You cannot live without it. Hope is the last thing to die; it’s the last emotion within us. Therefore it’s absolutely essential to maintain hope when everything around us seems hopeless.

Society is suffering from lost hope. Most people really don’t hope for the best, instead they just kind of hope the worst won’t happen. Or something worse, they feel like they’re at the end of their rope, and they’re struggling with depression, despair, and discouragement. 

Solomon knew this feeling well when he wrote, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

When we feel like there is no hope left, we become sick of heart, meaning we’re depressed and discouraged with life. But Solomon doesn’t leave us there. He says there’s hope, and that hope is God’s lifeline. In other words, the end of the rope isn’t unraveling, rather it’s tied to a life preserver. Hope is the life preserver at the end of the rope. 

Our hope is in the Lord and in Him alone. Put your hope in Christ and His plan for your life. Don’t look at what went wrong, or what you’ve lost. Instead keep you eyes focus on the Lord and the future He has for you. 

When you find yourself at the end of your rope, look to the Lord. He’ll be the life preserver for you to hang on to. And the really neat part is that you aren’t hanging on to God, He’s hanging on to you.