HOPE. What does that word mean to you? If you were to put your level of hope right now on a continuum, where would you fall if ONE is without hope and TEN is overflowing with hope?

Scripture is not silent about hope. In fact, it seems I have every reason to live with overflowing, abundant, life changing hope as a byproduct of my faith in Jesus. If that is so, why do some days feel hopeless? Why do I use the words, “this is so hopeless!” Perhaps it is because I don’t understand hope.

According to the dictionary, hope is a feeling of expectation or desire for something to happen; wanting something to happen or be the case. Essentially, in the natural realm, hope is wishing for something to be and the strength of the wish (hope) is directly related to the strength of the person’s desire.

Biblical hope is quite different. Biblically, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and the foundation of its strength is God’s faithfulness. It has nothing to do with me or what I want, but is completely tied to God and what he wants for me.

Do you catch the difference? The first depends on me; the second depends on God. One is chance, the other is certainty.

I invite you to read the following scripture slowly and identify the source and foundation of our HOPE. I see two ways we live with hope. Can you identify them?

³All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, ⁴and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

1 Peter 1:3-5

We live with GREAT EXPECTATION (hope) because Jesus is raised from the dead. That is the foudation of my hope, the faithfulness of God. Two ways my hope is certain is 1) a priceless inheritance in eternity and 2) God’s protecting presence every day until I realize eternity. So, it is later but also today.

Do you have hope that does not depend on you? Do you know the hope of a priceless inheritance in eternity? Do you know the protection of Jesus over your every day life until you reach eternity?

Stay with me this week as I unwrap the gift of hope guaranteed to those who believe.