HOPE — The Truth About Biblical Hope

We have turned hope backwards.

We have misplaced it.

Now it is time to put hope back where it belongs.

HOPE.

Not wishful thinking.

Not positive thinking.

Not pretending everything is going to work out exactly the way we want.

Not attaching our confidence to money, people, opportunities, answered prayers, or outcomes.

Biblical hope is something much stronger.

Throughout this series, we have been taking apart a word that we use so casually. We say, “I hope this happens,” when what we often mean is, “I really want this to happen, but I don’t know if it will.”

Then we looked at what happens when hope becomes misplaced. We may genuinely believe in God while quietly attaching our security to something He has provided. Without realizing it, our confidence moves from the Provider to the provision.

But now we have arrived at the question underneath both of those conversations.

What is biblical hope?

Perhaps one of the clearest pictures Scripture gives us is found in Hebrews:

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…” (Hebrews 6:19)

An anchor.

Think about what an anchor does.

An anchor does not stop the wind from blowing.

It does not prevent waves from coming.

It does not guarantee calm water.

The purpose of an anchor is to hold something steady when the conditions surrounding it are not.

That changes the way we understand hope.

If hope only exists when circumstances are favorable, it isn’t much of an anchor.

If hope disappears when the answer doesn’t come, it wasn’t anchored deeply enough.

If hope requires us to know what happens next, then our security is still resting in what we can see.

Biblical hope gives us something entirely different.

It allows us to remain anchored when we don’t know what happens next because our confidence is not in the circumstances surrounding us.

Our confidence is in God.

Romans 15:13 calls Him “the God of hope.”

I love that description because it tells us something important about where hope originates.

God doesn’t merely give us hope.

He is the God of hope.

Paul writes:

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

Notice what Paul doesn’t say.

He doesn’t say, “May God arrange everything perfectly so that you can finally have hope.”

He doesn’t say, “May God explain what He’s doing so you can have hope.”

He doesn’t say, “May God give you the outcome you’re waiting for so you can have hope.”

The hope comes from God.

That means biblical hope cannot ultimately depend upon circumstances because its source exists outside of them.

Perhaps this is why the psalmist could speak directly to his troubled soul:

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God…” (Psalm 42:5)

There it is again.

Hope in God.

Three words that put everything back into its proper order.

Not hope in what God might do.

Not hope in what God might give.

Not hope in when God might answer.

Hope in God.

This doesn’t mean we stop asking God for things. Scripture certainly doesn’t teach that.

We can pray for healing.

We can pray for provision.

We can pray for restoration.

We can ask God to open doors.

We can bring Him our deepest desires.

We can tell Him exactly what we would love to see happen.

But biblical hope allows us to bring those desires before God without making their fulfillment responsible for holding our faith together.

That is a very different kind of hope.

It means I can hope while I wait.

I can hope when I don’t know the outcome.

I can hope while grieving.

I can hope when the answer hasn’t arrived.

I can hope when the circumstances surrounding me contradict everything I desire.

I can hope when I don’t understand what God is doing.

Why?

Because biblical hope isn’t certainty about what God will do.

It is confidence in who God is.

Romans 5 takes this even deeper because Paul places hope in a setting where we might least expect to find it.

Suffering.

He writes that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

Then he says:

“Now hope does not disappoint…” (Romans 5:5)

Once again, Scripture refuses to make favorable circumstances the foundation of hope.

Hope is growing while circumstances are difficult.

That means suffering and hope are not opposites.

Waiting and hope are not opposites.

Grief and hope are not opposites.

Uncertainty and hope are not opposites.

I can experience all of those things and still possess biblical hope because none of them determine who God is.

Maybe that is where we have misunderstood hope.

We have sometimes treated hope as though it means expecting everything to get better.

But what happens when it doesn’t get better when we expected?

What happens when the prayer takes years instead of days?

What happens when the door remains closed?

What happens when the relationship isn’t restored?

What happens when provision comes differently than we imagined?

What happens when God leads us somewhere we never planned to go?

Does hope disappear?

Not if our hope is anchored in God.

The outcome may change.

God does not.

The plan may change.

God does not.

Our circumstances may change.

God does not.

Our understanding may change.

God does not.

The anchor remains.

And perhaps that is the truth about biblical hope that we desperately need to recover.

Hope is not something we manufacture by convincing ourselves that tomorrow will be better.

Hope is not denying reality.

Hope is not pretending we aren’t disappointed.

Hope is not refusing to grieve.

Hope is not forcing ourselves to feel positive when life hurts.

Biblical hope can look directly at reality and still say:

God remains.

His character remains.

His faithfulness remains.

His love remains.

His Word remains.

His promises remain.

And because He remains, hope remains.

That is why biblical hope can survive an outcome we didn’t want.

Our hope was never supposed to be attached to the outcome in the first place.

Maybe that is what these three little arrangements of four letters have been showing us.

EPOH.

Hope turned backwards because we misunderstood what it meant.

PEOH.

Hope scattered because we placed it in things that could never sustain it.

And finally:

HOPE.

Everything where it belongs.

Not because every circumstance has been resolved.

Not because every prayer has been answered.

Not because we finally know what tomorrow holds.

But because our hope has returned to its proper foundation.

God Himself.

We don’t need to know everything He will do to trust who He is.

We don’t need to see the entire road to know who is leading us.

We don’t need the answer in our hands before we can believe in the One who holds us.

And we don’t need favorable circumstances to prove that God is faithful.

Our hope is anchored somewhere deeper.

“Hope becomes whole when God Himself becomes its foundation.”

Reflection

If the outcome changed, would my hope survive?

That question may reveal more than we expect.

Because if changing the outcome destroys our hope, perhaps our hope was still attached to the outcome.

But if our hope remains even when everything around us changes, perhaps we are beginning to understand what Scripture has been telling us all along.

Hope isn’t ultimately about knowing what happens next.

It is knowing Who remains, no matter what happens next.

And that is biblical hope.

Much Love

~Gayla~