Hope: What is it?

I sure hope it doesn’t rain!

I hope that check comes in the mail tomorrow!

I desperately hope my kids are safe!

We can only hope.

I think I’m losing hope.

Hope : what is it? What is it, not? How can we hold on to it when life and relationships are hard? How can we hold on to it when the God of all hope seems distant? (How can we breed hope in our kids through good stories?) How can we hold on to hope when the world is so broken and hopeless?

I did a browser search of Hope, and this is what popped up...

from Wikipedia:

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large.

Now, what is wrong with that definition? It bases hope on the mind. Now, I tend to think of man/people as three parts. Some really good people don’t share my view. This is not a hill I will die on but to me, it makes sense of the complexities of who we are.

My first comment about this, is that we are made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:27 says

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Secondly, God is Triune....He is Father, Son, and Spirit. The Bible doesn't use the term Trinity but the unity of God and the three persons of the Godhead are spoken of throughout.

2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”

Matthew 28:19 ““Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,”

Just as God is Triune, Man is made of three parts: Body, Soul and Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 says “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And

Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Dr Charles Solomon of Grace Fellowship International uses a wheel illustration to show the three parts of man and how they relate to one another .

The Spirit part of man is that part that relates to God, it is intuition, conscience, communion. You could say that in all people it is the part of us where our God-consciousness resides. it is the SPIRITUAL part of man.

The soul is that part of man that relates to others and includes the mind the will and the emotions (the thinker the feeler and the chooser). It can be influenced by the SPIRITUAL and in the believer the thoughts and feelings are brought into submission to the spirit so that if there is disagreement, the Spirit always trumps the thoughts and emotions. This is the Psychological part of man or the self-consciousness or personality.

The Body is the physical part of man or our earth suit. It is the Physiological part that relates to the environment with a world-consciousness. The Soul has effects on the body.

Now, why did I go on this bunny trail? Because all people can FEEL hopeful. All people can choose to be hopeful based on the facts. But, believers are uniquely equipped to reside in a place of hope because their spirits have been transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit . If said believer is living a life yielded to the HS then, it follows that their SOUL will be governed by the Spirit and they will have

The mind of Christ

Phil 2:5 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,”

The strength given by Christ

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Needs supplied by Christ

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Peace that passes understanding

Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Fullness of Joy

John 15:11 ““These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

And all of these truths about you once you receive the free give of salvation AND yield to the leading of the Spirit in your life lead to a life of HOPE.

When we have the mind of Christ we have hope.

When we walk in Christs strength, that give us hope.

When we have confidence in His promise that He will supply our needs, we dwell in hope.

The Peace of Christ and Hope are linked.

The joy of the Lord and hope are also linked

The words of a famous hymn go like this:

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, “It is well, It is well, with my soul.” (It is well with my Soul Horatio Spafford)

No matter the circumstances of life, It can be well with our soul because of the hope we have in Jesus.

Hopefully, you agree with me that because of the way God knit us together, and because of what happens to us when we receive the free gift of salvation, we, as believefs afe uniquesly equipped to live as people of hope.

From Reader’s Digest “Hope is the one thing that can help us get through the darkest times.”

I searched in my Bible software, and these quotes about hope came up:

Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.

Charles Spurgeon

Hope is a waking dream.

Aristotle

Cursed is everyone who places his hope in man.

Augustine of Hippo

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Martin Luther

Hope is a lover’s staff.

William Shakespeare

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he hoped not it would grow up and become seed … Or no tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.

Martin Luther

Hope what you please; but remember, that hope without truth at the bottom of it, is an anchor without a holdfast. A groundless hope is a mere delusion. Christ’s Incarnation, Page 146

Charles Spurgeon

He that lives in hope danceth without musick.

George Herbert

We have been born of God and our Christian hope is a valid hope! No emptiness, no vanity, no dreams that cannot come true. Your expectation should rise and you should challenge God and begin to dream high dreams of faith and spiritual attainment and expect God to meet them. You cannot out-hope God and you cannot out-expect God. Remember that all of your hopes are finite, but all of God’s ability is infinite!3

A. W. Tozer

Hope is a word which has taken on a new and deeper meaning for us because the Savior took it into His mouth. Loving Him and obeying Him, we suddenly discover that hope is really the direction taken by the whole Bible. Hope is the music of the whole Bible, the heartbeat, the pulse and the atmosphere of the whole Bible.1

A. W. Tozer

5903 As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is a mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. Like all the Christian virtues, it is as unreasonable as it is indispensable.

G. K. Chesterton

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.

J. I. Packer

5940 O hope! Dazzling, radiant hope! What a change thou bringest to the hopeless; brightening the darkened paths, and cheering the lonely way.

Aimee Semple McPherson

5928 Hope looks for the good in people instead of harping on the worst in them. Hope opens doors where despair closes them. Hope discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot be done. Hope draws its power from a deep trust in God and the basic goodness of mankind. Hope “lights a candle” instead of “cursing the darkness.” Hope regards problems, small or large, as opportunities. Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.

Anonymous

The word “hope” I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.

John Calvin

Bumper sticker: “Since I gave up hope I feel much better.”

Anonymous

hmmmmmmm..... some great quotes there, some ....not so great. What does the dictionary tell us about hope?

From Websters 1828 dictionary

Hope is a desire for some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is attainable.

Hope differs from wish or desire, in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it;.

Hope, therefore, always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.

Hope....it is more than wish....it is more than desire.....why? For the believer in Jesus, it is because of what that hope is anchored in. There is an old hymn that starts out....

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name. (The Solid Rock)

Here, the hymn writer warns against trusting in anything that is man made for our hope. No, our hope must rest on the solid rock of Jesus and on His finished work on the cross.

Another more recent hymn states that .”In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground . Firm from the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease. My comfortor, my all in all, Here in the love of Christ I stand. (The Ge tty’s)

Here, the writers link hope to light, strength, solid ground, love, peace and lack of fear and striving no matter what the circumstances one finds himself in.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Psalm 33

18Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope for His lovingkindness,

19To deliver their soul from death

And to keep them alive in famine.

20Our soul waits for the LORD;

He is our help and our shield.

HOPE here is the Hebrew word yhl (ya-hell) which means wait, or cause to hope.

WAITS is the Hebrew word hkh (ha-ku) which means wait, be patient, tarry.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Hope

HOPE The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.

Biblical faith rests on the trustworthiness of God to keep His promises. The biblical view of hope is thus significantly different from that found in ancient Greek philosophy. The Greeks recognized that human beings expressed hope by nature; however, this kind of hope reflects both good and bad experiences. The future was thus a projection of one’s own subjective possibilities (Bultmann, “ἐλπίς, elpis,” 2.517). Biblical hope avoids this subjectivity by being founded on something that provides a sufficient basis for confidence in its fulfillment: God and His redemptive acts as they culminate in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Old Testament Hope

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Old Testament Hope as Present and Future

In the Old Testament, hope is both the trusting attitude in an active but provisional deliverance, and an eschatological hope in God’s ultimate deliverance.

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Hope (NT)

HOPE (NT). Even if the noun “hope” (Gk elpı́s) is not found at all in the Gospels and the verb “to hope” (Gk elpı́zein) is found only five times in the Gospels—with the OT sense of “to trust” (Matt 12:21; John 5:45) or with a purely secular and nonreligious sense (Luke 6:34; 23:8; 24:21)—the idea of hope as confidence in God “whose goodness and mercy are to be relied on and whose promises cannot fail” (Barr 1950: 72) is everywhere presupposed in the NT (see also TDNT 2:517–35 and LTK 5: 416–24).

job 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.

Ps 33:17–22 A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits…

Pr 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Is 40:31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Ro 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.