Hold on to Hope: Eight Elements of Biblical Hope

“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” Leia Organa in Star Wars: Episode VIII

“Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Andy Dufresney in The Shawshank Redemption

What is Hope?

In the Bible, “hope” is not a wish, dream, or something that has a chance of happening. Hope doesn’t spring from optimism about circumstances but confidence in God. It’s something we can expect and anticipate, even have assurance of, though it might require much waiting and trust. Biblical hope is anchored in the character, promises, and work of God, which is why the Bible calls God our hope (Ps. 71:5; 1 Tim. 1:1) or the gospel a gospel of hope (Col. 1:23; Rom. 15:13).

“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.” (Ps. 71:5)

Here are three definitions of biblical hope.
“Biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future.” [2]
“To trust in, wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future.”[3]
“It can define either the object of hope, namely Christ and all that His final coming implies, or the attitude of hoping.”[4]

Everyone Needs Hope…and Christians Should Abound in It

Everyone needs hope because everyone experiences struggles. We all have more fog, shadows, and darkness in our life than we’d like. We need hope because all of us wait for the fulfillment of some promise from God. All of us endure trials, stress, burdens, discouragement, disappointment, or pain, and we need the hope that God will be with us, help us, and use this for our good. People are constantly in need of hope. Not vague sentimentalities or religious cliches or optimism, but real, biblical hope.

Hope is in short supply today. Our world is cynical, pessimistic, and brimming with pent up rage. Listen to the news or scroll through social media and things can feel hopeless. But Christians must not lose hope or be hopeless (and we should pay more attention to how our words pile on to the sense of hopelessness rather than propose an alternative narrative that might offer reasons for hope). We possess a hope that can be shared and explained (1 Peter 3:15). The light of biblical hope shines even brighter in our dark, desperate world. Christians in the Word find plenty of hope to supply a world without it.

Charles Spurgeon calls despair the mother of all sorts of evil[5] because when we lose hope it often leads to a host of other sins: giving into the temptation we had fought, unbelief, selfishness, drug or alcohol abuse, debilitating depression, fear and worry, panic, etc. It is easy to despair in this world—both in ourselves, our circumstances, and in those around us—and despair will only lead us into more sin and experiencing less joy and less hope. To keep despair at a distance, we must continually fight it with the strong weapon of hope, hope rooted in who God is, what Christ has accomplished for us, how God is and can be at work on our behalf, and what belongs to us through God’s promises. 

While the list isn’t comprehensive, here are eight elements of biblical hope. My prayer is that we as Christians would grow in cultivating, nurturing, and spreading the hope we have in Christ.

1) Hope is firm because it’s rooted in the Gospel of Christ.

The gospel is a historical reality based on the past work and accomplishment, present reign, and future return of Jesus (1 Tim. 1:1). In other words, our hope is solid because it’s grounded in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has already accomplished the victory and proven that God is faithful to His promises. When we need a firm hope we must first return to the fixed truths of who Jesus is, what He has accomplished (and will accomplish), and then what we have in Him.

All the promises of God become ours in and through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20; Eph. 1:3). Because of who God is for me as His child—which happens through receiving the gospel—I can have confidence that He withholds no good thing (Ps. 84:11) but is eager to provide generously for our every need (Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Peter 1:3-5).

Because my hope is in Jesus, and Jesus is a living savior, I have a living hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Peter’s epistle continually reminds his readers that what defines them isn’t their hardship on this earth but their hope in Jesus Christ. Because they have a living hope, and because of what awaits them at the end of their journey, they can endure many trials and tribulations along their path as exiles and sojourners. Peter is an “apostle of hope,” both in reminding them they have a living hope in Jesus (1 Peter 1:3, 13, 21; 3:15) and what Jesus accomplished for them (1 Peter 1:3-5, 11, 18-21; 2:24-25; 3:18, 21-22). 

Note that this vision of a hope-full people offers us an interpretive lens by which to view ourselves and our circumstances both now and forever. Christians are defined, not by our hardships, but by our hope.

2) Hope rests in knowing God is with us.

This flows out of the gospel because we are assured in and through Jesus that God is both with us and for us in all things. We are not hidden from God’s sight or far from God’s heart. He is always with us. He is working all things in our life together for our good and His glory. We are not alone, and we are never alone because God is with us. And if God is with us, then we can not only find hope in His presence, but we can find hope in the power He supplies and peace He offers to His people.

“Our tendency is to feel intuitively that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are. As we sink further into pain, we sink further into felt isolation. The Bible corrects us. Our pain never outstrips what he himself shares in. We are never alone. That sorrow that feels so isolating, so unique, was endured by him in the past and is now shouldered by him in the present.” Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly

Whatever “hopeless” situation we might be in, we are not alone, not outside God’s good plans for us, and not too far for Christ’s grace to reach us. Because God remains with us, hope remains with us as well.

3) Hope is trusting God and taking Him at His Word.

Since our hope is rooted in the Gospel, our hope is ultimately rooted in God and His Word. This is true in the sense that when we believe the Gospel, we trust what God has said He’s done for us and who He will be for us, but it’s also true in the sense that all hoping in God is trusting Him. 

We hope in God by taking Him at His Word. We can be held strong and not overwhelmed in storms because our hope is anchored in the rock-solid character, attributes, work, and promises of God. Because He is truthful and trustworthy, we trust in Him. Hope can be synonymous with faith in God or trusting God, or banking on God’s Word (1 Peter 1:21; Heb. 10:23; 11:1; Eph. 1:12). We put our hope in God as we hope on what God has said He will do or provide. “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word” (Ps. 119:114; see also Titus 1:2).

God is our hope because God is the One we trust (Jer. 14:8; 17:13; 50:7; 1 Tim. 1:1; Rom. 15:13). We hope in His steadfast love (Ps. 33:18; 130:7; 147:11) and we put our hope in God our refuge and rock (Ps. 62:5-6; 71:3-5). Our hope can be sure and unwavering because God is dependable and unmoving.

Because our hope is in God and His promises, hope often goes against what we might see or feel, or how things look on the outside. This hope trusts what God says is true and that God will be faithful (Rom. 4:18; 8:24; Ps. 42:5). “Biblical hope is based on what God has said, not on what we can see.”[6] Hope isn’t dependent on my subjective feelings but God’s objective truths. The call to believe in God is a call to put your hope in him (John 14:1-3). If our hope is in Him, and we have confidence in both who He is (character, attributes, person) and in what He has said (promises, His Word), then we can wait and trust in hope even when we are not seeing the results, or even when it seems like God is not fulfilling His promises (see Heb. 11).

If God is our God, and we call to mind who God is and what He’s promised to us, then we will never be without hope. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ 25 The Lord is good to those who wait [hope] for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait [hope] quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lam. 3:21-26)

There is hope because we trust God’s plans and purposes. His wisdom and sovereignty give me hope. There’s hope because we trust the heart of God, or we believe in His kindness, goodness, and love for us. There’s hope because we know that God is now for us, fully and forever, and is doing all things for our good. There’s hope because we know God will not leave us in need or emptiness without offering to provide or fill us up. Our weakness, pain, disappointment, loneliness, and loss are opportunities for God to do in our hearts and lives what only he can do. There’s hope because we believe that all wrong things and hard things will one day be made right. There’s hope because we believe God can do the unexpected and the unforeseen. What God can do is not bound by what we can do, imagine, foresee, or control.

4) Hope is connected to receiving God’s promises.

Because our hope is in God and what God has said to us, hope is directly connected to looking forward to receiving God’s promises and blessings. We don’t hope for things God has not promised to do, be, or give, but we can bank on and wait for every single thing God tells us He will do or give.

Because hope is often future-oriented and tied to waiting to receive what God has promised, the New Testament frequently connects hope to receiving the fullness of salvation in Christ or the blessings purchased for us in Christ (Col. 1:5; Acts 23:6; 1 Peter 1:3-4; Titus 1:2; 2:13). The hope of glory (Col. 1:27; 1 Peter 1:3) is what we look forward to receiving through Christ in its fullness when he returns.

What God’s people have faith in is God, but specifically, a God who makes and keeps promises. Christians put their hope in God’s promise that through Christ we will not only be forgiven, made new, and reconciled to God now but we will receive an eternal inheritance in the future. We hope in God by hoping in God’s promises, which means we cannot hope in God if we don’t know what He promises. 

5) Hoping is waiting in faith and with anticipation.

At the heart of hoping is waiting, but it’s waiting with anticipation and expectation. It’s not assuming what you’re waiting on will not come to pass or that God will not keep His promises, but it’s looking out for how and when He will fulfill His Word.

Much of the Christian life is waiting. Our timing is not His timing, and though all His promises will come to pass, they are not on our time schedule. Hoping often has an eagerness to it (Gal. 5:5), as we might be eager for something but God calls us to wait for His perfect timing. In the Bible, the same words (Hebrew: yachal or qavah; Greek: elpis) can often be translated as either “wait” or “hope” because all hoping in God involves a waiting in faith and all waiting involves doing so with hoping in faith.

“‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope [yachal] in him.’25 The Lord is good to those who wait [qavah] for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait [yachil] quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lam. 3:24-25; ESV)

Hope is waiting, but not assuming your waiting will lead to disappointment, but waiting to see how your hoping will be fulfilled (Is. 40:31; Ps. 71:14; Heb. 6:18; 11:1; Ps. 130:5). Hope is not impatient, nor is it apathetic and passive, but it awaits something with anticipation. You set your hope on someone or something (1 Peter 1:13). You take refuge in the one you hope in (Ps. 71:1-5). Paul describes the hope of salvation as a helmet because we put it on, we rest in the salvation and the promises God has given us. We set our hope or fix our hope on something (1 Tim. 4:10), so it means to attach your trust—and hope—onto someone or something (Gal. 5:5; 1 Peter 1:13).

The hall of faith is the hall of hope (Heb. 11), meaning all those who awaited receiving the things God promised them were men and women who lived by faith and hope. Hope, faith, and waiting all seem to be synonymous in this chapter (Heb. 11:1, 8-10, 39-40; see also Heb. 6:11, 18; 7:19; 10:23).

6) As we wait and trust in hope, God is at work in us.

Waiting is hard, which means, hoping is hard. There’s a tension in waiting and hoping as we wrestle with whether we will continue to wait and put our hope in God or if we will grow tired of waiting and put our hope in someone or something else. The land of waiting and hoping is often where God does much of the work of sanctification (maturity) in us.

God is at work in us, through us, and for us as we wait on Him. He teaches and grows us as we learn to wait on and hope in Him (Rom. 5:3-5). He forms us into stronger men and women who endure tough circumstances, who live by faith when it’s not easy, who trust God more than they trust their feelings or what they see, who are willing to trust His timing and plan, who have their heart freed from the idols we tend to turn to and hold onto as we wait, and who turn to His Word for wisdom and strength and to prayer for help. The more our hope is connected to who God is and what He promised, or the more we learn to look to Him and trust in Him as we wait, the more our hearts drink up the joy and rest only God can offer us.

Often, the Psalms show us how we can choose to hope in and trust God in the midst of trials, and as we do, we exchange fear and worry over circumstances for peace and confidence in God (Ps. 42:5, 11; 62:5-6). Hope brings encouragement, refreshment, clarity, or strength. Hope is sometimes spoken of as a light in the darkness, meaning it both gives shows us there is reason to hope and offers the encouragement and strength that hope gives. John Piper describes it as a “reservoir of emotional strength.”[7] You can abound in hope (Rom. 15:13) by the Spirit. Hope has an element of joy to it or is life-giving (Rom. 12:12; 15:13). It offers peace and is an anchor for the soul (Job 11:18; Heb. 6;19; Rom. 15:13). 

“but they who wait [“trust” in CSB and “hope” in NIV] for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Is. 40:31; ESV).

As we wait on God to work for us, God is doing a work in us.

7) Hope tends to dwindle when alone and rise when with others.

This doesn’t mean being around anyone gives hope, but it is to say that most of us slide toward losing hope when left to ourselves. The more isolated we are the more we tend to think wrong thoughts, give in to discouraging or defeating whispers, replay false narratives in our mind, and lose sight of God and His promises as we look only at what we see and feel. But when in Christian community, we are buoyed by the shared weight of others walking alongside of us.

Hopelessness feeds off isolation (including the isolation online that is no replacement for community), but hope is ruled by biblical community.

This is partly because there is comfort, solace, and encouragement simply from having people we love who are with us. But it especially happens as other Christians (in due time) remind us of what we know to be true, point us to God and His promises, help us not be sunk by our own thoughts and feelings, and share the burdens with us (Heb. 10:23-25). On our own, we are quick to forget who God is and what He’s done for us, so we gather together to remind one another of the hope we have in the God we serve.

8) The Bible warns us not to put our hope in anything other than God.

The repeated calls to put your hope in God (Ps. 130:7) is simultaneously a call to not hope in anything or anyone else. Likewise, because our hope is found in confidence in what God promises us in His Word, we should guard against hoping in things God has not said He will do. A false hope is a hope detached from what God has said or promised.

The Bible warns us not to set our hope on anything else (Ps. 33:16-17; 62:10; 1 Tim. 6:17). Whether it’s wealth and possessions, military might, human wisdom and strength, earthly rulers or powerful nations, or our own abilities and works, all of these are things humans hope in, trust in, or look to but end up being disappointed by. The Old Testament is in part a story of a people continually putting their hope in the wrong things, and yet God continually proving why His people should and can hope in Him alone.

Our hope rises and falls based on whether our hope is in God or not. Hope abounds when we hope in God. Hope diminishes when we hope in anything besides God. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom. 15:13). Hope in God will not disappoint, fail us, or leave us ashamed (Ps. 25:2; 119:116; Phil. 1:20; Rom. 5:5), but when we put our hope in anything other God—ourselves, circumstances, wealth, nations, power, people, etc.—they will always disappoint and fail us.

Additional Resources on Hope

Footnotes

[1] For a helpful overview of the OT and NT usage of “hope,” see the video on Hope by The Bible Project, either at Youtube or bibleproject.com.

[2] “What is Hope?” by John Piper at desiringgod.org, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-hope

[3] William B. Nelson Jr., “Hope,” at biblestudytools.com. 

[4] S. H. Travis, “Hope” in New Dictionary of Theology, ed. by Sinclair B. Ferguson, David. F. Wright, and J. I. Packer (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1988), 321.

[5] Charles Spurgeon, “Hope, Yet No Hope. No Hope, Yet Hope,” https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/hope-yet-no-hope-no-hope-yet-hope/#flipbook/

[6] Nancy Guthrie, The One Year Book of Hope, 155.

[7] “What is Hope?” by John Piper at desiringgod.org.

Published by

Unknown's avatar

indycrowe

You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram @IndyCrowe for the short & sweet stuff.

Leave a comment