Faith, Hope and Love, the enduring trilogy according to 1 Corinthians 13:13. What is hope? When is hope no longer needed? Can hope disappoint or even make one bitter?
Last month we focused on love – God’s love. This month it is hope’s turn as we will end the month with Easter celebrations, the object of our greatest hope.
We often go to Hebrews to define faith. Faith is the thing hoped for. So hope is like a blueprint for our faith.
Hebrews 12:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
My first job was to help my parents in their plumbing business. I would take the house plans and a red pencil and color in all the plumbing fixtures. These house plans were huge papers and many pages. Some pages were the foundation layer. Another page may be the electrical layout. I would find the pages with the plumbing in the kitchen and bathrooms and color them all red so that they would stand out when my father began to plan his bid or start work.
For the home owner these plans were their dream. The design of their home would be brick and mortar, with paint and carpet or wood floors. At the blueprint stage it was their hope to have a house one day and what it would look like. Faith was the builder and his team that would bring the desired results from the pictures on paper to a building where the couple’s babies would run and play.
Our hopes are like that! Our hope lays out the plans that fuel our faith and gives our faith the place to build substance.
The house built is the faith come to reality of the blueprints that described the design.
Hope is the desire that leads to results.
We can have hope for things we need in the natural that will make our life more fulfilled. I have a hope to have a real kitchen one day. I live in a tiny home, and I don’t have a real oven, only several electric appliances. It works, but I have hope to build a small home that has a kitchen with an oven.
In scripture, we find warnings about hope also. There are especially warnings for fathers to not frustrate their children. (Colossians 3:21) When a child is disappointed too many times because of broken promises from dad, their hope meter can be shut down. If that becomes the norm for the child, it could promote a lifestyle of hopelessness.
Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Once we have received what we have hoped for then hope is no longer needed.
The New Testament is filled with scriptures that highlight the importance of hope in our Christian faith, its source is God and Christ. It is significant in sustaining believers through trials and challenges knowing their confidence is in the faithfulness of God Almighty.
As Christians, we hope for Eternity that is promised through faith in Jesus Christ provided by His resurrection. Even creation is looking forward to the day “when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay”. (Romans 8)
What a glorious day that will be for sure!
So as we place our hope in the One who is faithful we can be assured of eternity as He has promised. Our ultimate hope is in Christ as we wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
Read the full passage in Romans 8:18-25 and feed your faith so your hope will be strong.
The scriptures are faith food and nourish our spirits to grow strong. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to give us a taste of what is to come according to this passage.