If our future is not secured and satisfied by God then we are going to
be excessively anxious. This results either in paralyzing fear or in
self-managed, greedy control. We end up thinking about ourselves, our
future, our problems and our potential, and that keeps us from loving.
In other words, hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing
love. That's because we just let God take care of us and aren't
preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves. We say,
"Lord, I just want to be there for other people tomorrow, because you're
going to be there for me."
If we don't have the hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged
in self-preservation and self-enhancement. But if we let ourselves be
taken care of by God for the future—whether five minutes or five
centuries from now—then we can be free to love others. Then God's glory
will shine more clearly, because that's how he becomes visible.
When God satisfies us so deeply that we're free to love other people
then he becomes more manifest. And that's what we want above all.
What's the difference between a Christian definition of hope and the way it is usually used?
The word "hope" in ordinary English vocabulary is generally
distinguished from certainty. We would say, "I don't know what's going
to happen, but I
hope it happens."
When you read the word "hope" in the Bible (like in
1 Peter 1:13—"set
your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ"), hope is not wishful thinking. It's not "I
don't know if it's going to happen, but I
hope it happens." That's absolutely
not what is meant by Christian hope.
Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to
happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a
confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it
will come to pass.
How do we build our hope in God?
Hope is a portion or part of faith. Faith and hope, in my mind, are
overlapping realities: hope is faith in the future tense. So most of
faith is hope.
The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (
Romans 10:17).
This implies that hope, like faith, is also strengthened by the word of
God. Hope comes from reading his precious and very great promises and
looking to Christ who purchased them.
I would sum it up like this: The most important verse in the Bible for me, probably, is
Romans 8:32:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Now that last part is hope producing! But it's grounded in the rock-solid statement that "God didn't spare his own son."
So the essence of what we look to in the Bible to build our hope is,
What has Christ done for me in my sinful condition that enables me to
know that I will not come in to judgment and condemnation and that all
things are working together for my good? And the answer is that Christ
died for me, rose again for me, and therefore all the promises of God
are yes in him.
So let's look away from the circumstances that confront us, look to
Christ, look to the promises, and hold fast to them. Hope comes from the
promises of God rooted in the work of Christ.
