There’s a popular quote that reads: “To live without hope is to cease to live.” In other words, to not have hope is a death sentence for any and all who don’t have it. Without hope, there is no expectation of rescue. There’s no expectation of deliverance. There’s no expectation of salvation. There is no expectation that things can and will get better. Without hope, life doesn’t exist. Without hope, people live pessimistic lives – always thinking the cup is half empty; always seeing the negative in every situation. Without hope, you develop a slave mentality and you therefore, bind yourself to your circumstance not ever wanting to see yourself better than what you are.

It is impossible to keep someone down who has hope. Hope lifts you above your situations and places you on higher ground making it possible for you to see a future when everybody else is fixated on your past.

[tweetable]Hope presses and challenges the norm.[/tweetable] It doesn’t settle for less and it doesn’t take no for an answer. Your success in life will depend on the level of hope you have. Little hope, little success. Great hope, great success.

It has never been and will never be God’s plan to leave man without hope. In fact, it’s on the setting of man’s fall (found in Genesis 3:15) that God gives us a prophetic utterance of hope when He curses the serpent and announces the coming savior.