In everyday conversation, hope often means no more than wishful thinking. A follower of Christ, however, lives with a different kind of hope, a hope that is sure, guaranteed, and life-giving. Believers hope with confident expectation that God has completely and permanently overcome darkness, sin, and death. We know God as Promise-Maker and Promise-Keeper: we see His track record in the Bible, and we can undoubtedly look back on our own life and see evidence of His faithfulness and love. Our hope is solid: our God does all that He says He will do.
You are my hope, O Lord GOD;
You are my trust from my youth.
PSALM 71:5
We give thanks to God always for you all, . . . remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:2–33
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
1 PETER 1:3–4
Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. . . . Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
ROMANS 5:1–2, 5
O Israel, hope in the LORD;
For with the LORD there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
PSALM 130:7
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
EPHESIANS 4:1–6