HOPE

Faith. Hope. Love. According to 1 Corinthians 13:13 that these three will endure forever, with love being the greatest. For we know that God is love (1 John 4:7). As His children, we have His love in our hearts that makes it possible for us to love one another.
Jesus said that this is how the world will know that we are His disciples, if we have love for one another (John 13:35). So how will the world recognize His love in us? They will see it in how we live, how we speak, and how we treat others. If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will do no harm to them (Romans 13:10). Our love will be evidenced in the good that we do in His name, and it will bring glory to our Heavenly Father. God also gives a measure of faith to each of us (Romans 12:3). That means that He has given us faith to trust and depend upon Him.
 
What is Hope?
Hope is expecting something good that is presently unseen. Hope is what motivates us to get up in the morning. We have the hope of a new day and new opportunities. We go to work in hopes of attaining the rewards of our labor by being productive and getting paid. We don't always see the rewards immediately, but we expect them. We go to school in hopes of completing our education and beginning our careers. Hope is the driving force behind major decisions we make. We get married in hopes of sharing and enjoying our lives with someone we love. Hope gives us strength to go on. It keeps us from quitting or giving up. Hope empowers us to believe that change is possible, dreams come true, and miracles happen.

Hope is the Hebrew word Tiqvah meaning hope; expectation; something yearned for and anticipated eagerly; something for which one waits. Tiqvah comes from the verb Qavah, meaning "to tarry" or "to wait for" or "to look hopefully" in a particular direction, an expectation, something yearned for with anticipated eagerness. Hope, therefore, is not inferior to faith, but an extension of faith. Faith is the present possession of things hoped for, not yet seen, while on the other hand, hope is the confident expectation and accomplishment of things not seen. Therefore hope is not an optimistic outlook or wishful thinking without any foundation, but it is the confident expectation based on solid certainty. Scriptural hope consequently rests on God's promise and what He has said in His Word.

To have enduring hope is to know and trust in God. He is the source of all hope. David acknowledged God as His hope when he said, And now, Lord what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You (Psalm 39:7, Amp.). We hope in Him knowing He is faithful, merciful, and good. You may possibly have lost hope in your situation, but you have to understand that one Word from God will change the situation for your good, for when everything else fails God's Word cannot fail, for God watches over His word to perform it, and His Word is forever settled in heaven.

When hope is lost, it means that the confident expectation and accomplishment of things not seen have been exchanged with impossibility, which is now based on the experiences of the natural sense. It could be sickness, poverty or an impossible situation in which you have lost hope, the first thing to do is to submit to God's Word and discover for yourself what He has said, this in effect will restore hope back to you irrespective of the situation.


The dilemma of most people is that often times they have confessed faith in the absence of hope. It does not work that way, faith is the substance of the things hope for, there must be things hoped for, for faith to act upon in order to obtain what is hoped for. Like faith, hope must be based on God and His Word in order to achieve results, for when your hope is anchored on God's Word there will be a performance and a physical manifestation of the things hoped for. Understand then that hope seen is not hope. Hope being a firm assurance and expectation of things not seen, when something manifests it is no longer hope. Be hopeful in all situations for the Lord will see you through if you faint not.