What Difference Does Hope Make In The Present?
Hope is the joyful anticipation of good things happening. By nature it is future-orientated. But in this section I want to look at the differences hope can make to life in the present. This section contains little of my own commentary. I simply want to show what qualities the bible associates with hope and let the verses speak for themselves. The first few qualities are those which I feel rank as the most significant.
Joy and Rejoicing
1 Pet 1: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you,
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Rom12: 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faith and love
Col 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints--
5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel
6 that has come to you.
Gal 5: 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Peace
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Boldness
2Co 3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Courage
Php 1: 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Encouragement
2 Thess 2:16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
Hebrews 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
Endurance
1Th 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Enlightenment
Eph 1: 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Guidance
Psalm 25:4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.
Help
1Timothy 5:5 The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Nearness to God
Heb 7: 18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless
19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Heb 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hope doesn't automatically make us closer to God. But Christ's sacrifice has opened the way for us to approach God, and it is hope that gives us the confidence to approach him and draw near to him.
Overflow from within
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Note: These streams of living water from within come from the Holy Spirit living in us, whom we receive by believing in Christ. Hope is a core element of such belief, Heb 11:1. In the bible, fullness is measured by overflow. God wants us not only to be filled with hope for our own benefit, but to overflow with hope so that it spills over from our lives and benefits people around us.
Power and authority
Ephesians 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,
20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
Hope produces faith (Col 1:5), and faith in turn gives us access to God's incomparably great power that he has invested in us, and to the authority that we have in Christ. Hope enables us to be overcomers.
Provision
1Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Note: Provision comes from God, not directly from hope. But it is hope that teaches us to ask of God in faith. Scripture teaches us that God's provision is not always automatic, but rather that he expects us to ask him for the things we need, e.g.
James 4:2 ....You do not have, because you do not ask God.
Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
Purity
1Jn 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
In other words, the hope of becoming like Christ at his coming (and perfect in purity) motivates us to seek purity now.
Purpose
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.
10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Although verse 8 speaks of faith, note that hope is a core element of faith (Heb 11:1). Faith and hope give us a sense of value and purpose. The word for workmanship is the same that would be used for an artist's 'masterpiece'. We are each a masterpiece of God's design, and he has designed us with a purpose and things for us do.
Anyone who has ever been unemployed will know how demoralising it can be to lack gainful employment. You can quickly end up feeling hopeless and valueless. Although many people think it would be nice to be so rich that you don't have to work, useful employment and purpose are actually very important to having a healthy sense of value and hope. Work is not a curse, but a great blessing. I don't mean that our value comes from what we do. We are valuable because of the way God has perfectly created each of us. But he has created us to contribute, and the ability to contribute is very important for our sense of well-being and hope. Hope gives us a sense of purpose, and having a sense of purpose produces hope. Hope and purpose support each other.
Rest
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
Sonship
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Knowledge that we are 'sons' of God and therefore heirs, is a very key element of our hope, and contributes to a wonderful sense of belonging. Note that whether you are male or female, you are treated as 'sons' as far as inheritance is concerned. The opposite of sonship is slavery, and in many ways the opposite of hope is fear. Instead of receiving a spirit that makes us a slave to fear, we have received a spirit who affirms our sonship and gives us hope.
Strength
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
Joy and Rejoicing
1 Pet 1: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you,
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Rom12: 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faith and love
Col 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints--
5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel
6 that has come to you.
Gal 5: 5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Peace
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Boldness
2Co 3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Courage
Php 1: 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Encouragement
2 Thess 2:16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
Hebrews 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
Endurance
1Th 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Enlightenment
Eph 1: 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Guidance
Psalm 25:4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.
Help
1Timothy 5:5 The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Nearness to God
Heb 7: 18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless
19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Heb 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hope doesn't automatically make us closer to God. But Christ's sacrifice has opened the way for us to approach God, and it is hope that gives us the confidence to approach him and draw near to him.
Overflow from within
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Note: These streams of living water from within come from the Holy Spirit living in us, whom we receive by believing in Christ. Hope is a core element of such belief, Heb 11:1. In the bible, fullness is measured by overflow. God wants us not only to be filled with hope for our own benefit, but to overflow with hope so that it spills over from our lives and benefits people around us.
Power and authority
Ephesians 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,
20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
Hope produces faith (Col 1:5), and faith in turn gives us access to God's incomparably great power that he has invested in us, and to the authority that we have in Christ. Hope enables us to be overcomers.
Provision
1Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Note: Provision comes from God, not directly from hope. But it is hope that teaches us to ask of God in faith. Scripture teaches us that God's provision is not always automatic, but rather that he expects us to ask him for the things we need, e.g.
James 4:2 ....You do not have, because you do not ask God.
Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
Purity
1Jn 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
In other words, the hope of becoming like Christ at his coming (and perfect in purity) motivates us to seek purity now.
Purpose
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.
10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Although verse 8 speaks of faith, note that hope is a core element of faith (Heb 11:1). Faith and hope give us a sense of value and purpose. The word for workmanship is the same that would be used for an artist's 'masterpiece'. We are each a masterpiece of God's design, and he has designed us with a purpose and things for us do.
Anyone who has ever been unemployed will know how demoralising it can be to lack gainful employment. You can quickly end up feeling hopeless and valueless. Although many people think it would be nice to be so rich that you don't have to work, useful employment and purpose are actually very important to having a healthy sense of value and hope. Work is not a curse, but a great blessing. I don't mean that our value comes from what we do. We are valuable because of the way God has perfectly created each of us. But he has created us to contribute, and the ability to contribute is very important for our sense of well-being and hope. Hope gives us a sense of purpose, and having a sense of purpose produces hope. Hope and purpose support each other.
Rest
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
Sonship
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Knowledge that we are 'sons' of God and therefore heirs, is a very key element of our hope, and contributes to a wonderful sense of belonging. Note that whether you are male or female, you are treated as 'sons' as far as inheritance is concerned. The opposite of sonship is slavery, and in many ways the opposite of hope is fear. Instead of receiving a spirit that makes us a slave to fear, we have received a spirit who affirms our sonship and gives us hope.
Strength
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.