Some years ago researchers placed two sets of laboratory rats in separate tubs of water and left them there to see what they would do. However, every so often they would lift one group of rats out of the water, then put them back in. The results were quite startling. Those rats that got lifted out occasionally continued to swim for over twenty four hours, whereas the others all drowned in less than an hour.
Why the difference? It wasn’t the temporary rests that did it, it was the hope engendered by them. If hope holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should its effect be on our lives. For people of faith hope ultimately is the assurance that no matter what life may bring, nothing can separate them from the love of God. As the Bible says,“If God is for us, who can be against us.”