What is Hope

Last Monday night was our monthly WOW (Women of Wonder) meeting at church. Mrs. Patty discussed hope and that started me thinking that this was something that I needed to delve a little deeper into.

I asked some friends and co-workers what their personal definition of hope was. It was interesting to see some of the differences in the answers.

1) Hope is what drives every individual in life. A person may hope for a good job, a healthy baby, or to serve their Lord. I think every action a person does in life is all due to what a person hopes will happen.
2) Hope is a feeling and a belief: (which are two different things) that something can be obtained.
The description for me is Hope is what allows me to have peace and serenity when everything in my life has fallen apart and all I can do is cry. I may be crying but I know and have HOPE that GOD is in control and I will be ok.
It is easy to have peace when everything is going your way – if you want to know if you have Hope, and Belief, and Faith – wait until things are at their worse. How fast can you get to some type of acceptance? (And I don’t mean not being upset, God expects us to have feelings)
3) Hope is holding on to a dream that you want to come true
4) In the 'real word' - hope is more like a wish...I hope I win the lottery/get a promotion/my plane is on time. When it comes to faith...hope is absolute certainty - and knowing we can believe in the promises of God
5) Hope means TRUST, the desire for some good, and a feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

Webster says that the definition of hope is to desire something with a confident expectation of its fulfillment.

Of course it is now MY turn to create/develop/explain my own definition of hope. I truly believe that real hope is a gift from God. I believe that people who do not know the Lord personally really cannot have true hope, for what would they have to hope in? After thinking about this I feel that ‘Webster’s definition’ works for me.

Here are some things that represent hope for me:
-The cry of a newborn baby
-The look on the faces of that baby’s parents
-The spouse, parent, loved one of a soldier sending them ‘off to war’ and being there when that plane returns with their soldier
-The response of ‘We’re going to beat this’ when a cancer diagnosis has been given
-The parents of a 16 year old who is going off to drive on their own for the first time

There are NUMEROUS verses in the Bible that mention hope. When you think about it, for a Christian that is what this book is about. If God had not breathed HIS Word into life, we would all be floundering around for no apparent reason and wouldn’t know TO hope much less know the source of all hope.

Over the years, hope has taken on different forms for me. At times it would be something simple like ‘I HOPE I make an A’, I hope that boy calls me, or sometimes more intense like ‘I hope my grandmother beats this cancer’. The A’s came SOME times, the phone rang occasionally, but my grandmother was not able to beat cancer on THIS SIDE of Heaven. However, I will admit that my hopes for her at a certain point changed from beating the cancer to ‘no longer having to suffer with the illness.’ I went from hoping she would be cured for ME, because I needed her, to hoping that healing would come for her in whatever way God willed, whether it be a physical cure or her leaving us for Heaven.

After going thru the loss of several loved ones to cancer and other major medical issues, I have decided that I cannot and will not put my complete hope in medicine. My hope can ONLY be in God because HE is the one with the plan. HE is my source of hope. I have learned that I can hope for certain things to happen BUT that my prayer should always be for HIS will, even when that doesn’t match up with MY hope.

In conclusion, I have listed several verses regarding hope. These verses speak to me personally and I hope that they touch you as well.
(All scripture is quoted from the NIV Study Bible)

Romans 8:24-25: For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently.

Psalm 42:5: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5: Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

(Notice a pattern with the last 3 verses quoted?)

Lamentations 3:18-25: So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

God gave Abraham hope:
Genesis 15:5: He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Romans 4:17: As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they are”

Ecclesiastes 9:4: Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

Isaiah 40:31: but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Also, check out Psalm 119. This chapter is full of hope.