Why Do We Need Hope?
I always thought faith seemed so much more important than hope. But after studying what the Bible says about hope, I discovered that we cannot have faith without first having hope! Let’s look at “the FAITH chapter,’ Hebrews 11 for more insight. Hebrews 11:1 New American Standard Bible teaches us:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So according to this verse, if we don’t have something “hoped for”, then we cannot have faith. There are many things we can hope for. We can hope the weather will be nice. We can hope we will have a good day. We can hope nothing goes wrong. We can hope no-one close to us gets hurt or sick. We can hope for healing. We can hope for a better job. You get the idea. The list is endless of what we can hope for. Some things we hope for disappoint us though-we’ll address that later.
Assurance H5287 in this verse means “a setting or placing under (support), that which has the foundation, assurance, confidence, substance,” So if faith is the foundation, it needs something to support. If there is no hope, there is nothing for our faith to support.
Here’s an example of HOPE. One of our two cats, Toby, loves whipped cream. We like to put it on our coffee sometimes. Our youngest daughter gives our cats a small dobble of whipped cream once a day (but not even every day). Toby knows the sound of someone getting coffee, and as soon as he hears it, there he is sitting at the edge of the kitchen, waiting, hoping that he might get some whipped cream. It does not take a lot to make Toby hope. We can try to be as quiet as a mouse, but even the slightest little tinkle of the coffee cups, and there he is- hoping, expecting. He doesn’t even get some every time, but he still holds onto the hope that he might get some this time. He is expecting some. He is hoping for some.
This is what hope does for us. It helps us expect. It’s like a little spark, just waiting to be ignited to start the fire of faith in our hearts. Noah Webster 1848 dictionary defines hope as:
to trust in with confident expectation of good.
Hope is confident expectation. On what basis do we have confidence? Toby has confidence based on the fact that he has been given whipped cream in the past, and so he expects that he might get some again. We can have confidence based on our testimony of God’s goodness to us in the past, and so we can expect that He will be good to us again. God IS good. It is who He is.
In the same way, Asaph remembered what God had done for his people Israel in the past and it helped him hope for what God could do for them in the present and in the future. Psalms 77:11-14 NASB says:
I shall remember the deeds of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all Your work
And muse on Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy;
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders…
Remembering is just one way of obtaining hope. What has God done for you recently that you can remember and praise Him for? As you praise Him for that mighty deed, can’t you just feel HOPE arising in your heart, and FAITH is building up underneath that hope.
So, mom’s, don’t forget that…
WE NEED HOPE TO HAVE FAITH IN GOD, SO LET YOUR HEART HOPE!
In His Love,
Suzanne
Mom Morsels 