BIBLE PASSAGE:
Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
(Psalm 31:24)
MEDITATION:
Hope is described as:
“A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”.
If you hope that something is true, or if you hope for something,
then you want it to be true or to happen, and you usually believe
that it is possible, or likely. Hope allows people to approach problems
with a mindset toward success, which increases the chances they will
actually accomplish their goals.
Faith and hope are defined in the dictionary as:
“faith” – a confidence or trust in a person or thing,
or a belief not based on proof.
“hope” – an optimistic attitude of the mind
based on an expectation or desire.
Faith says it is so now, and hope says in the future it could happen.
In the Bible, hope is the confident expectation of what God has
promised, and the strength of that hope is a belief in His faithfulness.
Faith is a belief in, or confident attitude toward God, involving
commitment to His will for one’s life. Belief is to place our trust
in God’s truth (the word belief in Greek is “pistis”, which means
confidence or trust).
Faith, belief, and trust all point to faith. Hope and belief
complement each other to create a cycle. The hope motivates
a person to take action, and they believe the action they take
will move them toward their hope. In prayer, hope and belief
can increase a person’s capacity to love.
When people have hope they have faith, because they have a
confident belief that the future will be better. The ‘better future’
for believers is the promise of eternal life in heaven. They may
not be able to prove their hopeful assumption, but they have
faith in it.
In order to have hope, we need to have faith in something or
someone. That ‘someone’ is God, and His promises. If we do
not believe in His existence and His promises, then we will
fail in our efforts to attain hope and faith.
In just a few selected scriptures (we could have selected many
more), we can see the importance of hope to the Psalmist.
His hope was in God and His promises (‘His Word’).
We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield. (Psalm 33:20)
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)
But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you. (Psalm 39:7)
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
(Psalm 42:5)
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him. (Psalm 62:5)
For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth. (Psalm 71:5)
As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
(Psalm 71:14)
You are my refuge and my shield;
I have put my hope in your word.
(Psalm 119:114)
Sustain me, my God, according to your
promise, and I will live; do not let my
hopes be dashed. (Psalm 119:116)
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5)
The Psalmist relied on the promises of God to sustain him
and create a confident hope, which caused him to anticipate
being with the Lord. Being with the Lord is the confident
hope we all need for coping with life’s challenges.
ACTION:
Are you overwhelmed by something or someone which is
causing you to lose hope? The world can try, but it will
never provide the answer for lost hope. Only the Lord can
create a lasting hope and confidence in the human heart
and mind. Take a lesson from the Psalmist and connect
with the Lord, so that you too can have the hope you need
to sustain you and create a greater faith in you.
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, You are the Provider of hope
for me. I place my trust and faith in You and Your
promises. Your Word is true and it never fails, so
I know that everything You say is trustworthy. Help
me in my efforts to grow closer to You so that I can
enjoy Your love and blessings even more as my faith
and hope increase. Thank You for the promises You
have made and for giving me confidence that through
You and the sacrifice of Your Son, I have hope of a
brighter future.”
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