My favorite football team has lost eight consecutive games as I write this. With each loss, it’s harder to hope this season can be redeemed for them. The coach has made changes weekly, but they haven’t resulted in wins. Talking with my coworkers, I’ve joked that merely wanting a different outcome can’t guarantee it. “Hope is not a strategy,” I’ve quipped.
That’s true in football. But in our spiritual lives, it’s just the opposite. Not only is cultivating hope in God a strategy, but clinging to Him in faith and trust is the only strategy. This world often disappoints us, but hope can anchor us in God’s truth and power during the turbulent times.
Micah understood this reality. He was heartbroken by how Israel had turned away from God. “What misery is mine! . . . The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains” (7:1–2). But then he refocused on his true hope: “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me” (v. 7).
What does it take to maintain hope in harsh times? Micah shows us: Watching. Waiting. Praying. Remembering. God hears our cries even when our circumstances are overwhelming. In these moments, clinging to and acting in response to our hope in God is our strategy, the only strategy that will help us weather life’s storms.
INSIGHT
Micah prophesied some sixty-five years to Israel and Judah during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Micah 1:1). He was a contemporary with Hosea, who prophesied to Israel (Hosea 1:1), and to Isaiah, who prophesied to Judah (Isaiah 1:1). Accusing God’s people of idolatry, moral corruption, oppression (Micah 1:7; 2:1–2; 3:9–11), Micah warned of God’s discipline. He called the people “to act justly and to love mercy” (6:8). His prophesy that Israel would be destroyed (1:6) came to pass in 722 bc (2 Kings 17:5–7). Micah also warned that “[Judah] will become a heap of rubble” (Micah 3:12). Because Hezekiah, the king of Judah, repented, Jerusalem was spared destruction from the invading Assyrians (2 Chronicles 32:20–22; Jeremiah 26:18–19).
