What Is Hope?
Hope is a big part of
everyone’s life. Hope points us to the future. It gives us something to
look forward to. It inspires us. When we combine it with our
faith we can happily wait for what we are hoping for to happen - even as we
get older.
What do we hope for?
We hope for different
things at different times in our lives.
Children hope to be able
to go out to play!
Young people hope to get
into a good college; get an exciting job; get married and have children.
Older people hope that
their marriage will last; that they stay healthy; that they will be able to
retire; that their children will have good lives.
We all hope to see our
relatives again; that we will be able to go on a vacation; that we will be
happy; that we will live a long life; that we can live forever.
What kinds of things do
you hope for?
What is hope?
Hope is one of God’s
principle graces. It goes right along with faith and love. These are the
three principles that the Bible says will last forever – faith, hope, and
love.
Hope looks to future
happiness and waits for it.
According to Noah Webster,
HOPE is the desire of
some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it,
or a belief that it is attainable.
Webster’s definition goes
on to say,
Hope is different than a
wish or a desire, because it implies some expectation of obtaining the
good desired, or the possibility of possessing it.
When we hope in something,
we are hoping for something good, and we have the belief that what we are
hoping for is possible.
Hope therefore always
gives pleasure or joy, whereas pain and anxiety may come with a wish or
desire.
Hope helps us to continue
on. When we expect that what we are hoping for will actually happen, it
gives us endurance to continue on, especially during hard times.
Hope is an anchor for the soul; firm and secure. Hebrews 6:19.
Hope is to anticipate,
usually with pleasure. It is expectation, or confidence. Hope
looks to the future, not the past.
We hope for a better
tomorrow, healing, overcoming bad habits, and making relationships better.
Single mothers hope for
a good life for their children.
People with diseases
hope for a cure.
Starving people in
third-world countries hope for food.
Homeless people hope for
a place to live.
The downcast hope for a
future.
The poor hope for a way
out of their poverty.
Those abandoned hope for
a loving home with people to care about them.
Alcoholics hope to be
cured.
How does HOPE differ from FAITH?
Faith is a vital part of
hope, but it is not the same. Faith is the substance that hope rests on.
Faith is the power behind the hope. Faith is believing. Faith is to trust,
to believe, to obey.
To have faith in God is to
believe that it is true and to ACT accordingly. That is to Trust Him, Rely
on Him, To love Him, To cast our care upon Him.
Faith is the substance
that hope rests on. It is the evidence of our hope.
Faith and hope work
together. You need to have faith. You need to believe, that somehow, what
you are hoping for, will happen. They work together.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Hebrews 11:1
My husband, Charles, says
it this way, “Hope without faith is only a wish.”
Let me give you some
examples:
When I hope that our son
will grow up to be a godly man, I have faith that God will bring it about.
I pray to God about how to raise our son, and ask God to guide him and lead
him, and I believe that it will happen. I believe that my hope for my son
will happen, because I have faith that God will work in his life.
Another example is, when
my husband was looking for a job, I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to move
out of the area and that he would find a good job in Virginia Beach. I had
faith that God was working behind the scenes and would provide a great job
for my husband. And God did. My hope did not disappoint me. I hoped for
my husband to get a good job, and I had faith that God would provide it.
Do you see how hope and
faith work together? Hope is the future expectation, and faith is the
present reality that believes it will happen.
Why do we hope?
God gives us hope as a
gift. God gives it to us so that we can look forward to something. He
knows us and He knows that looking forward is very important to our
well-being. He knows it will give us enjoyment.
Think of the joy you have
had while planning for a trip, or getting ready to get married, or waiting
for the birth of your children! Think of the excitement that you felt while
waiting and hoping for all of these events to happen. We all want and need
to look forward to things. This is what hope allows us to do.
Why do we need hope?
Hope is capable of
changing our lives. Hope makes it possible for us to see a future in which
we are willing to participate.
Hope lifts our spirits.
It helps us to get through difficult times. Hope brings joy to our lives.
Sometimes our hopes can be
disappointed. You may feel that you have been hoping for something so long
and it hasn’t happened yet. Don’t worry. This may just mean that your
hopes are being purified. God is allowing time for your hopes to come in
line with His plan. You may need to make a slight adjustment to what you
are hoping for.
On the other hand, it just
may not be time yet.
Oswald Chambers, a great
Christian author, said, “There is nothing noble the human mind has ever
hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. Don’t jump to
conclusions too quickly; many things lie unsolved.” (Oswald Chambers, p
169)
We don’t know exactly how
what we hope for will happen. We need to have faith in God and believe that
what we hope for will happen. This is how faith and hope work together.
Faith gives you the substance, the material thing if you will, to hold on to
while you are waiting for what you are hoping for to actually happen.
HOPELESSNESS
We have all hoped for
something that hasn’t turned out like we wanted. That is a part of life
too, isn’t it? Sometimes we are hoping for something and we just don’t get
it. We can’t figure out why. But when one thing doesn’t work out, God
usually gives us something else to hope for. He helps us to realign our
hopes with the plans He has for us.
But sometimes our hope
gets lost. Sometimes we feel we are at a point where we have nothing to
hope for.
Sometimes difficulties in
life try to snatch your hope away:
An illness (yours or
someone else’s) complicates your life,
A series of setbacks or
disappointments leaves you drained of energy,
You feel all alone.
You feel that anything
you do will be useless.
You are afraid to try
something new.
You think you would act
differently if only you saw more hope,
You feel you have
nothing to look forward to anymore.
If these things describe
you, then you are experiencing hopelessness. You are feeling discouraged.
The first stage of discouragement is mild, but then it becomes stronger
until it disables you and you can become deeply depressed. Therefore,
you need to reverse this. You need to take steps to build up your hope
again right away.
If you are feeling
hopeless, or discouraged, there is good news! God can take your
hopelessness and turn it around!
How do we build our hope? How can we build our ability to hope again?
Here are four things that
you can do to build up your ability to hope again.
When we lose hope, it is
because we have lowered our shield of faith. We have allowed fear,
unbelief, bitterness, and self-pity to defeat us. So, the first thing that
we need to do is to -
1)
Re- Establish your faith in God.
You need to re-establish
your faith in God. Let Him be the anchor of your life. Maybe you have
tried to tie on to another anchor. A person, or a thing that cannot do you
any good.
Spend time with
God. Read God’s Word and let it get deep into your soul. Let it
replace the fearful thoughts with positive, faith-filled thoughts. Look to
God for comfort. Remind yourself of His power and His might to build
up your faith.
Your faith in what God can
do is the foundation of your hope. If your faith is in other people, your
hope will be disappointed. Other people will disappoint you – they are only
human! But God will never disappoint you. Having faith that He works
through other people is OK. He uses other people to bring about, or fulfill
your hopes, but it is not the other people that are doing it. God is the
ultimate provider.
As you build your faith
in God and His trustworthiness, His power, and His ability, your patience in
waiting for your hope to be met will grow.
Albert Barnes, another
great Christian commentator, writes:
“Where there is a strong
desire for an object and a corresponding expectation of obtaining it –
which constitutes true hope – then we can wait with patience.
“Where there is a strong
desire WITHOUT a corresponding expectation of obtaining it – there is
impatience.”
Think about it. If you
are afraid that you are not going to get something – if you don’t have a
corresponding expectation, or a belief that you are going to get what you
hope for – then you don’t have patience. You want it right away!
Because if you don’t get
it right away you are afraid that you will NEVER get it. You don’t have the
patience because you don’t have the corresponding expectation, or belief
that you will really get it, right?
Because of faith in God,
we have the corresponding expectation. The faith we have is the substance
that our hope is built on. Therefore, we can patiently wait, knowing that
what we hope for will happen.
Let God paint a new picture in your mind.
Get alone with Him and listen to Him. He will show you the plan that
He has for you in this stage of your life. If you ask Him, He will
show you. Meditate on His promises until the picture He gives you is
so clear on the inside of you that nothing can get it out of you.
If you are sick, and the
doctor has told you you’ll never be well again, instead of wallowing around
in that bad report, start dreaming. Start building a dream of climbing
mountains. Go to the Word that promises that those who wait upon the Lord
shall run and walk and not faint or be weary. Look at it until you see
nothing else. Picture yourself walking for miles and running from one place
to the next.
Hope will rise up in you
again. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you can be sure that if this dream
does not happen on this earth, it will be fulfilled in Heaven, where your
body will no longer keep you down. Remember – God does not give you any
dream, or hope, that cannot be fulfilled. At some time, it will be
fulfilled!
After you re-establish
your faith in God then,
2)
Set new expectations for yourself.
Remember - you
are never too old to improve yourself! You may need to change your
ideas of what you can do, but you can still grow and become better.
You are at a different
stage of your life now. Success to you now is different than when you were
working or raising children. If you measured your success by the standards,
you had in the past you would be defeated before you ever started. Now
instead of measuring your success by how much money you make, how your
children are, or the house you live in, you can measure your success by how
well you are becoming the person you will be for all eternity!
Develop the qualities that
will carry over into eternity, like:
Faith, Goodness, Knowledge, Brotherly kindness, Perseverance, Godliness,
and love
These traits can be found
in the Bible in 2 Peter 1:5-8
These will help you to
develop the eternal qualities of your personality.
Are you growing in
goodness? Knowledge? Self-control?
Being able to grow in
these areas is something that you can hope for now. You can hope that you
will be fully prepared for the next phase of your life.
Create opportunities to
learn and become better.
There is all kinds of
information available to help you improve. You can learn about how to
improve relationships with others, how to improve yourself, and how to
improve your relationship with God.
And if you can’t read, the
wonderful thing is that there is a lot available on TV and Video. There are
books on tape that you can listen to. There are stories, how-to books, and
the Bible all on tape.
Ask your family members to
get you some inspirational, motivational, and educational tapes to listen
to. Getting positive things into your head will start to replace
discouragement with HOPE!
3)
Spend
time with others
You are fortunate to be
able to come to a place like this and spend time with other people. You
have an opportunity each day to try new activities and you can build your
relationship skills.
If you feel isolated and
alone, being together with other people will lift your spirits and allow you
to hope again. When you meet extra goodness in other people, you will feel
amazingly hopeful about everyone again. Your hope in the goodness of God
will return.
4)
Help
others build their hope.
The simplest way to help
others to build their hope is to give them something they need. Giving hope
to someone is sometimes a simple as providing a need that they cannot meet
themselves.
You may think, “What can I
do? I feel so needy myself. How can I possibly help someone else build up
there hope?”
“Give and it shall be
given to you,” the Bible says. If you need hope, sow a seed into the growth
of your own hope by giving hope to someone else. Regardless of how small.
Some examples are:
If you know a single
parent, and you are a parent, you could provide for their need for guidance
by giving them advice and reassurance about bringing up their children from
the years of experience you have.
If you know a child who
needs encouragement, draw attention to their potential and their talents.
This could be your grandchild, or a neighbor’s child. You can help them to
see their value. You can help build up their self-esteem.
God will open up
opportunities for you to help others. You will see. In addition, by
helping others you yourself will benefit.
And if there is just no
opportunity for you to physically do something to meet someone else’s need,
you can always pray for them. Everyone needs prayer and that is something
you can do for someone else without lifting a finger! Lift your voice to
God instead. He is the ultimate in meeting needs.
So, to build up your hope,
start putting to practice these things in your life:
1)
Re-establish your faith in God.
2)
Set new
expectations for yourself
3)
Spend
time with others
4)
Help
others build their hope
Your hope may have been
based on what YOU were able to do in past – when you were strong, quick, and
nimble. Your whole future was ahead of you. You could conquer the world.
Now you are not so
self-sufficient. You have to look to others to help you. You realize that
your days are numbered and the hope you once had may now be much less. You
realize your human weakness and limits.
You may wonder what you
can hope now. Who can you hope in? How can the things that you hope in
happen now?
Now may be the time that
you are looking to someone else to give you the hope that you once had in
your abilities. Now may be the time you need to look to God to give you the
hope that you need. Now may be the time to let Jesus Christ give you what
He has wanted to give you all along – hope for your future in eternity with
Him.
Remember, “There is
nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not
be fulfilled.”
If we are hoping for good
things on this earth, or to live our lives forever, these things can be
fulfilled!
You see, God is not a
teaser! If you have a desire for something, it is something that can be
done. There is a way that that desire can be met, whether here on earth or
later in eternity.
You are never too old to
hope. HOPE is a divine dream. It’s an inner image that’s bigger than you
are because it’s built on the promises of God.
It is hope for the future
that comforts us today and points us to tomorrow. Take the Word of God and
let Him start building your hopes today! Let Him show you the eternal hopes
that He has for you. And have faith that God will make what you hope for a
reality in your life.
Never stop hoping! Start
building our new hopes today!
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