Hope for the Future

Hope is not just wishful thinking. Hope is a confident expectation in God and His Word. Hope is a beacon of light, a source of comfort, and endless inspiration.

We’re told over and over again in the Bible to have hope and to place our hope in God, yet where do we get this elusive hope? We can’t just manufacture it ourselves. Divine hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He is the One who enables us to have hope, as we see in Romans 15:13:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (NIV).

Hope is the very foundation of our faith, as the writer of Hebrews declares: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1 ESV). Later on in this same chapter, we read that we cannot please God without faith (v. 6).

Although hope and faith may seem like interchangeable terms — and they are related — they are different. Hope is confidence in some future fulfillment, while faith is shaped by our belief systems and based in the present.

We can hope in God because His character is trustworthy, and His loving kindness is faithful. He has proved Himself over and over again throughout Scripture — and throughout our lives. So we look back at God’s faithfulness and look forward with hope as Lamentations instructs us:

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him” (3:21–24 ESV).

The greatest example the Israelites had for God’s faithful deliverance was the exodus from slavery in Egypt. That’s why God instituted Passover — so they would always remember. And He instituted the Feast of Tabernacles, which we celebrate at the end of this month, so the Israelites would always remember how God sustained them through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness after the exodus. Recalling these events should have increased their hope in God’s future promises.

We, too, can look back at our lives and see God’s faithful hand at work. Some things may be more obvious than others — a car wreck that you could have been in if you’d left your house a few minutes earlier, a surprising bonus at work that just covers an unexpected bill, the right song on the radio at just the right time. These things help us to look forward to the challenges and unknowns ahead with hope that God will continue to display His covenant lovingkindness to us.

How’s your hope? Does it need a boost? Each week, meditate on these verses about hope, and let us know how they change your heart!

Week One
“We have this [Jesus] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain” (Hebrews 6:19 ESV).

Week Two
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 62:5–6 ESV).

Week Three
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5 ESV).

Week Four
“In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations” (Romans 4:18 ESV).