Hope can take you a long way. Whenever I counsel someone who is struggling with emotional strongholds, I always want to check their hope-meter because when you have lost your hope, you have lost everything. Simply defined, hope is the belief that tomorrow will be better than today. David knew about the power of hope when life looked hopeless.

Read Psalm 42. As David pens this psalm, he is depressed and his soul is discouraged. Yet he says he is going to remember the Lord.

“The Lord will command His lovingkindness,” David writes (v. 8).

Though God has not done it yet, David has confidence that He will. So he talks to himself. He writes to himself—he journals about his faith in God. There are times when life crumbles around you, but do not be discouraged. Look yourself in the mirror, and speak God’s truth. Write notes to yourself, and leave them in places you will see them.

What changed David’s feelings of hopelessness and discouragement? He looked in a different direction. He looked at what God was going to do, even though he couldn’t see it at the time. In other words, he looked by faith.