Hope – unfailing trust, eager expectation, and powerful life

Part of life.

To hope for something is an eager expectation. It is not passive. Our entire being resonates with it. Our confidence in such an eager expectation comes from knowing who God is and our trust in Him. Trust is earned. Trust comes from experience.

For me, HOPE is a predominant theme of scripture.

Why?

Because scripture is filled with references of a confident expectation of what God has promised and what is central to our faith. But not just a confident expectation, but an eager expectation.

A definition: is to wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future.

The Old Testament is filled with encouragement to wait for God hopefully, with expectation, be that in times of trouble or plenty. Therefore, we are to wait on the Lord when faced with difficulty and expect him to turn things around.

Psalms 27:14
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Psalms 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.

Unfailing trust.

We must have an unfailing trust that when we wait on the Lord when we trust in him and place all our hope in Him and his promises, that we will not be disappointed. 

Isaiah 49:23
Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.

Hope is, therefore, an eager and confident expectation of some future thing. Whether that be health, a spouse, children, a job, understanding, or peace. It is future looking. Rooting us in an eternal future. A future in heaven, before Christ and God, a future of peace.

Trust

The other aspect that is contained in hope is TRUST.

One encapsulates the other. For without trust, where would hope be? It hinges on trusting the source for the fulfillment of our desire. Our source is God. It comes from a trust we have developed over time, and our faith led us to it.

1 Timothy 4:10
That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

Hope encapsulates trust, and trust comes from experience. When we trust God, that trust is based on what we have personally experienced or witnessed, and from first-person testimony. The strongest level of trust is earned. Which can only be earned from personal experience.

Intertwined.

So the stronger your relationship with God, the greater your faith, the stronger your trust and firmer your hope. They are intertwined. Hope is what drives your outlook; it stimulates how you see the world and even how you respond to it.

When you have an eager expectation… when you look expectantly for the future, it is a positive outlook. It gives you patient endurance and rests on your trust in the one who can and will fulfill it. Often, trials bring one to their knees, but that is also often when hope is born.

Romans 5:3-5
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

• Steadfast… 1 Thessalonians 1:3
• We wait patiently… Romans 8:25 and Romans 15:4
• Brings courage, Heb 3:6 and boldness 2 Corinthians 3:12.

Eager expectation.

There are so many references to hope… an eager expectation throughout scripture, that one must understand that it is God’s encouragement to us. He is telling us not to give up. Not to surrender. To fight on. To be strong and of courage for hope will strengthen your faith.

God must be the true object of your hope and not anything in this world. Not riches. Not people. Not your job, recognition, accolades, or popularity. God must be the source of our hope because we can trust him. To do that, you must experience it firsthand.

Read your Bible.

Bring your needs to God.

Wait patiently, with hope, and look with an open heart and mind for what he is doing. Ask to remember, to see and understand what he has done, and look with eager expectation for the future.

Blessings,
Jana

NEXT… Disappointment.