Hope
Anticipate, expect, be confident or sure, trust, assurance, to wait, be patient, to long for
To hope is to expect the fulfillment of a desire or wish. As humans, we need hope to
help us deal with pain in the present and fear for the future. Confident expectancy in
the Bible, the word “hope” stands for both the act of hoping Rom 4:18-21, I Cor 9:10
and the thing hoped for (Col 1:5, I Pet 1:3). Hope does not arise from the individual’s
desires or wishes, but from God, who is Himself the believer’s hope. “My hope is in
You’ (Ps 39:7). Genuine hope is not wishful thinking, but a firm assurance about things
that are unseen and still in the future. (Rom 8:24-25, Heb 11:1,7).
Scripture tells us that those who do not have God, do not have hope (Eph 2:12). Hope
distinguishes the Christian from the unbeliever, who has no hope. Indeed, a Christian
is one in whom hope resides (I Pet 3:15, I John 3:3). In contrast to Old Testament
hope, the Christian hope is superior (Heb 7:19).
Biblical hope is hope in what God said He will do. At the heart of Christian hope is the
resurrection of Jesus. The apostle Peter said, “All honor to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by His boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege
of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ
rose again from the dead” (I Pet 1:3 NLT). In that passage, Peter says that the
resurrection of Christ gives us living hope and points to God’s future blessing upon
those who belong to Christ. That future hope gives Christians the power to live without
despair through the struggle and suffering of the present (compare Rom 8:18, II Cor 4:
16-18). The resurrection can bring hope to us in our suffering by inspiring us to fight
that suffering. A person who is renewing their mind to the Bible is optimistic. They
have faith, and they have hope. Faith and hope work together, because faith is the
substance, the tangibility of what you are hoping for. By faith, and with hope, you see
things other people can’t see. It is the evidence of what you can’t see. As we read Heb
11:1 we see we have to have hope first, then our faith will bring it into reality. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for, so if you have no hope, your faith can’t work. What
are you hoping for?