Emotions of Christmas - Despair to Hope

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Faith and Love are matters of the heart; hope is a matter of the mind.

Hope: the confident expectation that things are going to get better.

Despair: the loss of hope, feeling of hopelessness - to give up

Your view of the future determines your level of hope.

There is enough good and bad in your life to manufacture either happiness or discouragement.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things. Phil. 4:8

With hope, you are better equipped to handle the present and affect the future.

Hope allows you to enjoy the present more regardless of the outcome.

...the expectation of the wicked will perish. Proverbs 10:28

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. Heb. 6:19

Rather than asking, "What if", think, "What if God"!

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God... Ps. 42:5

…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6