What does Biblical hope look like?
I’m concerned that most people (believer’s included) look at hope like it’s some kind of mystical wishful thinking.
The Apostle Paul says this about hope in Romans 15:13, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” We should expect to be filled with joy and peace because of our real and dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit … not due to wishful thinking! Also, it’s imperative from a Biblical frame-of-reference to remember that we cannot experience this real and sincere sense of joy and peace by our own will power, but only through the power of the Holy spirit who lives within us!
As believers, instead of defaulting to a perspective of saying, “I hope something will happen,” we have every reason to live out on a daily basis the Biblical definition of hope, which is, “Confident expectation.”
Everything we do in our lives comes down to what we do with Jesus! How we identify truth from God’s message to us through His word, as well as through the leading of His Holy Spirit, will impact every aspect of our lives here and now … and for how and where we will live forever in eternity.
1 Peter 2:3-4 says, “God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.”
Paul also says in Romans 15:4, “Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.”
Psalm 119:40-44 says, “I long to obey your commandments! Renew my life with your goodness. Lord, give me your unfailing love, the salvation that you promised me. Then I can answer those who taunt me, for I trust in your word. Do not snatch your word of truth from me, for your regulations are my only hope. I will keep on obeying your instructions forever and ever.”
Please don’t just take my word for this perspective on what hope means … continue to search the Scriptures, let them be your guide in everything!