Thoughts on hope

The dictionary defines hope as the feeling that events will turn out for the best. It is also what we think of, perhaps subconsciously, when we see the word when it appears in scripture.

The word as it appears in the Old Testament is a trinity of wait, hope and expect. Stop for a moment and reflect on that. Seriously, stop reading and reflect on that. When we are directed to hope in the Lord, we are being directed to wait until the fruit of faith bears it self. We are being directed to know that Lord will come through as he has promised to come through. We are being directed to expect from the Lord; to plan our lives around that expectation. I expect tomorrow to come so I put my kids to bed at their bed times so that they will be refreshed for school in the morning.

Faith is inseparable from hope. You cannot hope in a Biblical sort of way without it being bound up in elements of faith. You cannot have this sort of trinity of waiting, hoping and expecting without knowledge our God and what he has promised to be and what he has not promised to be.

Psalm 130:5 says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word do I hope.” In Psalm 130:7 it says, “Oh Israel put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is steadfast love and plentiful redemption.”

See the Lord as the immovable bedrock upon which our hope is built. His unchanging word that was given to us to reveal his character is the object of our hope in verse 5. His steadfast love and plentiful redemption are the objects in verse 7. Notice those image creating adjectives…steadfast and plentiful. His love does not change. It does not change because it is not dependant on us to be deserving of it nor does it need to change to fully satisfy the core of our soul’s need to be loved. His redemption is without end, it is extravagantly given like Thanksgiving pie at Grandma’s.

Stop today and ask God to give you the grace gift of Biblical hope.