There is no Hope in mankind or in any other thing in the universe... But “we have our Hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim 4:10)... Because “Jesus Christ is our hope” (1 Tim 1:1)... That is exactly the reason Paul told the Roman believers that he could “Rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God” (Rom 5:2)... If you are not born again then you have no such Hope in you... To believers it is "Christ in you, the Hope of Glory” (Col 1:27). Today believers are “waiting for our blessed Hope, the appearing of the Glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)...
HOPE
If our future is not secured and satisfied by God then we are going to be excessively anxious and fearful... We end up thinking about ourselves... Our future... Our problems... Our potential... That keeps us from loving... In other words, Hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing love... That's because we just let God take care of us and aren't preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves... We believe the Lord will be there for us so, in turn we can be there for others...
If we don't have the Hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged in self-preservation and self-enhancement... But, if we let ourselves be taken care of by our Hope and trust in God, then we can be free to love others... When God satisfies us so deeply that we're free to love other people then we become more like Jesus and that's what we want above all else...
What hope Isn’t... Hope is not “I hope my team wins the game” or “I hope I get a raise...” Biblical Hope is not a hope-so but, it is a know-so... It isn’t wishing for the best... It isn’t waiting to see what happens and hope that it turns out well... Hope is not a feeling or an emotion... Hope is the knowledge of facts... If someone says to you that “I hope you have a good day,” there is no guarantee that the day will go well... To have a Biblical Hope is to have a sure anchor of the Soul... Not hoping for rain because, the forecast says that there is a 60% chance of rain and you hope that you get your garden watered... That is not hope!! That is wishful thinking and it is utterly undependable... It has no power to bring anything to pass... Human hope has no comparison to Biblical Hope...
A Christian’s definition of hope is far superior to that of the world... Instead of wishing or hoping for something to happen, a believer knows that their hope is solid, concrete evidence because it is grounded in the Word of God... The Christian has a hope that is “the assurance of things Hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)... It is a hope that is like faith… A faith that cannot be moved by circumstances or what the eyes see because an unseen God is seen in His Faithfulness... Paul may give us the best example of hope in Romans 8:24-25 where Paul tells the believer, “For in this Hope we were saved"... Now Hope that is seen is not Hope... For who Hopes for what he sees? But, if we Hope for what we do not see, we will wait for it with patience... Every Christian has gone through or will go through a darkness of the soul where deep doubts and fears flare up... But, extinguishing those fears is as simple as staying in the Bible faithfully, day by day...