By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Years ago, I chose as my life word, hope. It sums up all that is within my heart for every single facet of my life, especially since I’ve become a mother. My heart is filled with so many hopes for each of them. 

There are myriad uses for the word hope. In the entire Bible, hope appears between 142 to 182 times. About half of that number occurs within each text, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

One of my favorite verses from the Bible occurs in Psalm 39:7, My hope is in Thee. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word used here is from the Hebrew word, towcheleth, which translates to expectation. It comes from the root word, yachal, which means to wait. 

It’s very interesting and paradoxical to me that my favorite verse is about hope/waiting while one of my least favorite things to do is wait. But isn’t that the way life is? 

We throw the word hope around without even considering its meaning. It has become such an ordinary part of our daily speech. I hope we get through early today. I hope we win the game this week. I hope my kids are okay. I hope I get a raise. I hope I don’t lose my job in this mess. I hope the kids will get to go back to school. I hope they find a cure. I hope my candidate wins. 

You get the point.

But, when we give our lives to Christ, in that moment, He becomes our hope. He alone. In the moment we put our faith and trust in Him, all other meanings of the word vanish, like smoke, here one minute, blown away the next. Hebrews 11: 1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NASB) All these things we hope for are evidence of our faith in a living, loving God. 

As authors, we hope our book, our devotional, our blog post, our movie script, will receive recognition, be snapped up by the agent we’ve hoped for, the publishing house we’ve hoped for. 

We put it into their hands and then we hope and . . . wait. Ah, there’s that meaning again— expectation or wait. 

The good news for us as authors is, we can trust God with our work. When we are obedient and do the work He’s called us to, we can trust that He will get it to the very place, into the very hands of those He knows need to read/hear them. All those days filled with hope for our words have made the journey God intended for them since before we were born. 

I don’t know about you, but that gives me not only peace, but fills my heart with …hope.

Award-winning author, Debra DuPree Williams, tells stories of family and faith set in the deep south. Debbie’s debut novel, Grave Consequences, A Charlotte Graves Mystery, has earned praise for its authentic voice, setting, and characters. When not writing or in search of an elusive ancestor, Debbie and her husband enjoy life in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina.