In a recent Community Bible School presentation, Pastor Mikel Moore shared the story of an experiment to test the effect of hope on a mouse. The researchers placed the mouse in a pail of water and watched as it struggled for 20, 30, 40 minutes. Then it gave up and began to sink below the surface. The researcher reached in and pulled out the tired, shaking mouse, dried it off, and allowed it to rest.

They then returned it to the pail. Again the mouse struggled to stay above water. 20, 30, 40 minutes went by; an hour, then two, went by, and the little mouse kept swimming. That little mouse kept swimming for four whole hours.

What made the difference? Hope!

The little mouse had hope that the hands that rescued it before would do it again, and that kept it going.

The storms of this life often threatens to overflow and overwhelm us; but in God's Word we find reasons to keep swimming; keep striving; keep pressing and holding on. In this series we explore 21 reasons why you can have hope, even when the world - your world - feels hopeless.