I've thought long and hard about it. 

I have spent hours on my knees asking the Father, "God, what is it that women need most? Give me focus and purpose in the lives of these women with whom I have been entrusted. Show me what I can deposit in their empty, hurting hearts."

And then the answer came quietly but certainly—hope. 

It is an uncomplicated, but extraordinary 4-letter word—hope.

Hope has the power to renew vision ... to strengthen a weary soul ... and to restore a broken heart.

I hear it again, "Give them hope."

Hope provides a tenacity of purpose ... an excitement for tomorrow ... and a view of God that is incomparable.

Hope.

Your calling as a woman in ministry, is to instill hope into the hardest of hearts and into the weakened souls that God has placed under your leadership.

"Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in speech" (2 Cor. 3:12).

Women are hungry for hope. Women are thirsty for hope. Women are desperate for hope.

When life beats a woman up, tosses her to and fro and then violently robs her of her dreams, all a ravaged woman really wants to do is to be able to breathe again and to hope again.

"And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also are you sharers of our comfort" (2 Cor. 1:7).

Hope is believing that the goodness of God will intervene in your circumstances. Hope is knowing that God will always be Victor. Hope is the anticipation that God's lovingkindness and grace will determine the outcome of your life. Hope is the firm assurance that we, His beloved daughters, are more than conquerors through Him Who loves us. Hope is the sweet commitment that nothing ... absolutely nothing ... is able to separate us from the love of God.

And hope is discovered in an overwhelming peace, knowing that joy can surely be found in His presence.

"He on Whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us" (2 Cor. 1:10b).

Hope.

Barren women need hope. Rejected women need hope. Disappointed women need hope. Stressed-out women need hope. Grieving women need hope.

And you are just the person to give it to them!

Women's ministry can sometimes be heavy on emotions and light on substance. Don't embrace that type of erratic and despondent ministry.

I have determined that under my watch, every woman will be pointed toward hope. 

I believe that it is vital to steer women away from an emotional avalanche of despair and a flood of negativity. The power in ministry is found when women are gently but firmly led toward the God of all hope.

When a woman is truly in pain ... we pray without ceasing and give generous hope. Hope is more healing than verbal vomiting and constant complaining will ever be.

Hope is all I have to offer. The healing, protective, life-giving hope of Christ is at the heart and center of all true ministry. Nothing else will do.

"Now may the God of hope fill you all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:13).

Carol McLeod is an author and popular speaker at women's conferences and retreats, where she teaches the Word of God with great joy and enthusiasm. Carol encourages and empowers women with passionate and practical biblical messages mixed with her own special brand of hope and humor. She has written five books, No More Ordinary, Holy Estrogen!, The Rooms of a Woman's Heart and Defiant Joy! Her most recent book, Refined: Finding Joy in the Midst of the Fire, will be released on August 1. Her teaching DVD, The Rooms of a Woman's Heart, won the Telly Award, a prestigious industry award for excellence in religious programming. 

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