That’s just it. Those pioneers had hope. Hope that if they got to their destination, if disease didn’t take them, if the natives didn’t kill them, life would be better. They didn’t have to worry about their own government putting them in jail if they dug a well, or drained a swamp, or defended their land, or didn’t give half their earnings to the taxman.
What do you do when hope is gone?
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose?
“What do you do when hope is gone?”
Attack. Because you have nothing to lose.
Fight (in the literal sense) against the oppression.
That alone will bring back hope.
Our pioneer and pilgrim forefathers had hope in the Lord, not just in themselves or in prosperity. They were by and large faithful Christians who loved the Lord and knew His word. They were strong not just because they were self reliant, but because they did these hard things for God’s glory and not their own.
The Lord would still save this country if people would return their hearts to him. Not that everything would be perfect and rosy and wealthy for everyone, but people would have that inner peace and liberty that comes from knowing the Lord. If we turned back to the Lord and became controlled by him in our inner hearts, and in our outer behavior, he would deliver us.
2 Corinthians 3:17 NASB
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]
Joshua 1:5-9 (ESV)
Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success[a] wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Isaiah 41:10 ESV
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 40: 21-24, 27-31
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.