Zechariah 9:12 (GW)
Return to your fortress, you captives who have hope. Today I tell you that I will return to you double {blessings}.

Hope is the desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be a desirable pleasing expectancy. A prisoner of hope is someone who despite afflictions maintain hope in the covenant-keeping God.
As prisoners of hope, we must allow ourselves to be captured by and filled with hope. We must think of hope and we must talk hope. When we face a seemingly hopeless situation, remember that in God, you are a prisoner of hope; there is no way to get away from the hope that is in Him.
God doesn’t forget anyone, the needy, the poor, the desolate and miserable all have hope, God gives grace to all to hope continually according to Psalm 71:14. Without hope, it would be impossible to look to the future, hope is what gives us the push to keep going because “tomorrow will be better.”
A prisoner with a set appeal date has hope that their sentence may be overturned, every human without Christ is a prisoner on death row sentence because of the consequences of sin, but God comes along offering the ultimate hope in Christ by forgiving our sins. Our hope, therefore, is in Christ-1 Corinthians 15:19.
When life seems impossible, God gives us eternal hope. Hope is essential to our sustenance; it helps us get through rough and tough seasons and gives us breakthroughs because without hope we give up.
The Bible is the main source of our hope as stated in Psalm 119:43, it’s full of hope and life-giving words.
Imagine what Paul and Silas would have thought or done if they had nothing to hold on to; they were both on death row for preaching the gospel yet in a hopeless situation they rejoiced in the eternal hope they’d found in Christ in Acts 16:16-34.
Zechariah’s words in our text, are like a rope that our Heavenly Father is holding out; offering hope, not only for the post-exilic Jew but for all of us who find ourselves living in hopeless situations. The challenge before us is, however, will we trust God enough to take hold of that rope!
No matter how hopeless a situation seems to get, our ultimate hope is in Jesus, imagine what unbelievers who don’t have God cling to in times of difficulties.
Among every other covenant card that the resurrection of Christ gave us, it is the assurance in Jeremiah 29:11 that justifies our hope. God never plans evil or hopelessness towards anyone, His plans for us includes giving us a bright future full of hope, that should give us the courage to face each day, despite what it holds knowing that God always has plans to save and deliver us.
Hope is always almost lost when we take our eyes off the mark who is Christ Jesus, or it would not be hope. Hope is plucking that one string. Rather than being prisoners of despair, through Christ, God has transformed us into prisoners of hope.
You have hope, let that hope lead you to faith, and that faith to the blood of the covenant; and, through that blood, to God, the Father of all.
Shalom