The Daily: Saturday December 6, 2025

Rejoice in hope; be patient under trial; persevere in prayer.
Romans 12:12

Afraid to Hope

There's a question that cuts right to the heart of our spiritual journey: What are you afraid to hope for? Maybe it's a relationship that's been broken for years. Perhaps it's a dream you've given up on or a prayer you've stopped praying because the disappointment became too heavy to bear. Sometimes our longings feel too tender, too risky to engage. But here's the beautiful mystery of Advent: what if naming that thing we fear to hope for is the very place where God is trying to break in?

God doesn't meet us in our certainties or our carefully managed expectations. God meets us in our longings and in our willingness to be vulnerable with our deepest desires. Zechariah had stopped believing that Elizabeth would conceive. The dream felt too painful to hold onto. Yet that abandoned hope became the very place where God showed up with impossible news. Your fears and longings are known. Your ache is held. Your fear is seen. And sometimes, the dreams we're most afraid to voice are the ones God is most eager to address - not always in the way we expect, but always in love.

Reflection Question
What dream or longing have you been afraid to hope for, and what would it look like to bring that tender desire honestly before God?

Prayer
Loving God, I bring you the hopes I've been afraid to voice, the dreams that feel too risky to hold. Help me trust that you can handle my deepest longings and that you meet me in my willingness, not my certainties. Amen.