PRACTICAL HOPE

A Practical Look At Hope
(Taken from the study Guide, "HOPE" by William R. Cunningham)

2001 William R. Cunningham
April 22, 2001

INTRODUCTION

What does it mean to have hope? Is hope related to faith in any way and if so how? Many Christians are bombarded with teachings on faith and somewhere in all that we hear hope from the great scripture, Hebrews 11:1, which we will discuss shortly. However, do we really know what it means to have faith and therefore what hope is? I was surprised that many Christians had no idea what hope really is and how it really relates and is necessary for faith. I was one of them.

I happen to believe very strongly in hope and in particular, active hope, which we will discuss shortly. I do not believe in the dependence on miracles because the Bible never told us to depend on them. I believe that God will bless what we do and we will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Active hope is the road that we can take to accomplish our desires, goals, and visions.

In this lesson we are going to discuss hope from a biblical perspective. I believe that you will have a much better understanding of Bible Hope once you have completed this lesson. Incidentally, this lesson is an excerpt from the full study guide called "Bible Hope." I had first heard about this concept from Kenneth Copeland and decided to study it myself. That study guide is the culmination of my studies on Bible Hope.

HOPE DEFINED

What is hope? My bible dictionary says that hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit that abides, an essential characteristic of the Christian (1 Corinthians 13:8, 13). Not mere expectation and desire, as in Greek literature, but includes trust, confidence, refuge in God, the God of Hope (Romans 15:13). Hope is linked with faith (Hebrews 11:1). It depends on the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:19).

The Bible says

(Heb 11:1 KJV) "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

From this scripture we see that hope is an integral part of faith and that there really is no faith without it. Faith is the substance of what is hoped for. Therefore, without hope there can be no substance (no faith). The Webster's dictionary defines hope as: To wish (a desire, longing, or strong inclination) for something with expectation of its fulfillment. To have confidence: TRUST, to look forward to with confidence or expectation. It is important to realize that in order to hope for something there must be a "something" to hope for. However this "something" may not necessarily exist yet. Paul said,

(Rom 8:24-25 KJV) "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? {25} But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

Hope is confident expectation to receive what you desire as you wait patiently on the Lord to possess it. Hope is comprised of four things, which are listed below:

1. Confidence (trust)
2. Expectation
3. Patience
4. Desire

Our confidence in God can not exceed what He said that He would do (His will). See 1 John 5:14,15. To expect is to anticipate receiving and therefore you begin to act on your confidence or assurance (faith) to receive. Patience is a consistent, stable waiting for something. The desire is the picture of what you want. We can also say that hope is to fully rely on the fact that God will do what he says and what he promised is assured. Therefore we can hope in God.

If faith is being sure of what we hope for then hope must be the thing we see that faith brings to pass. If I am going to build a house, I first need a blueprint that basically expresses the vision of the house that the designer/architect sees. The blueprint is the expression of hope of the house in a sense. The contractors then take that blueprint and then build the house. Likewise, our hope is the blueprint for the "something" that we desire. We then use our faith to bring this something into existence. Our faith is like the contractors who build the house using the blueprint. Our faith will use the hope that we have to bring about what that blueprint expresses. Faith needs direction or focus and this is why hope is so important. Hope is the vision, goal, destination, or Promised Land (possession) that we see in our minds that faith will work on to bring about.

I should point out here that faith is not a mental or merely spiritual exercise. Your faith will induce activity that promotes the accomplishment of the goal or manifestation of your desire. Do not think that you can just sit back and hope and then God will miraculously bring things to pass. Work will usually be required.

TYPES OF HOPE

I have characterized hope into two distinct types. They are passive hope and active hope. Note that bible hope is an active hope.

Passive Hope

Passive hope is a type of hope where nothing is being done. There is no expectation for whatever you desire. Basically you are just wishing for something. Passive hope is to wish or desire only. When someone says something like "I sure hope I get some money for this bill", they or usually operating in passive hope. They are not doing anything to get the money, rather they just DESIRE to have it and perhaps by some miracle it will appear. A person with this type of hope desires something but does not put their hope in anything and therefore their hope is aimless and will result in nothing.

Unfortunately, this is the type of hope that I see that many people have. They merely wish for something but do nothing to obtain what they desire. They sit back and think that if they believe that they receive then somehow God will just give it to them. Sure the Lord might give you a gift. That has even happened to me and very recently. However, there is no indication in scripture that we should wait around and expect God to give us gifts all of the time. God is not your waiter, genie, or grocery store and therefore shouldn't be treated that way.

Active Hope

Active hope is simply the process of acting on the hope or vision that you have. You will begin to do something about the desire that you have. This might mean to save money, research, or whatever. One thing that you should do above all else is to seek God and not merely to acquire something. I have found that the fundamental principle of success is to really want a relationship with God and God will take care of you. You will have ups and downs but God will be with your throughout. In any case, active hope means that you are actively pursuing your vision or dream.

Now we have to be careful about the activity in active hope. You have to ask whether your activity is actually conducive to acquiring your goal or accomplishing your vision. For example, many people are told to give their tithe to a church or to give an offering to a particular minister and their needs will be met or God will bless them. People then begin to pour money into these ministers and churches with the belief that such activity will cause them to be blessed. This however is not true. True giving must be from the heart and such activity has violated two fundamentals in the principles of giving. First you are giving out of compulsion and most of all, you are giving not from your heart but from hopes of getting something, which means you have made God your grocery store. You cannot buy or earn God's blessings.

So be careful in what you do to accomplish your goals. Your activities should be productive to you accomplishing your goal. It might take lots of work and perhaps many years. However, I strongly believe that God will bless your activities. See Psalm 1:3.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

The following are some scripture references pertaining to hope that should help us understand hope more fully.

Psalm 31:24 (NKJV) Be of good courage,And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.

God will strengthen the heart of those who hope in him. Here is a benefit of confidently expecting God to do what he says he will do. As I hope in God, he gives me the strength necessary to maintain that hope. Amazing!

Psalm 33:17-22 (NKJV) A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.

Hope in God's mercy. We can trust that God will treat us with kindness and compassion. He looks out for our well-being.

Psalm 43:5 (NKJV) Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Command your soul to hope in God. We can take control of our own mind and in this case directing it to hope in God. This means that we can make the decision to trust in God.

Psalm 71:5-6 (NKJV) For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You.

Psalm 71:14 (NKJV) But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more.

God is our hope (Jeremiah 14:8, 17:7, 13,17; 50:7; Joel 3:16). God is our goal. He is what we focus on and it is God that we constantly get closer and closer to as we live. In God exists everything and therefore all that we need is in Him. So if I have God I have all that I need and want. God is indeed our hope.

Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV) Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

Our expectation must be fulfilled or our heart becomes sick. It is a bad thing to hope for something and not get it. We have to be sure that our hope is in God and not in our own selfish desires. Our blueprint should be according to the will of God else we couldn't confidently expect God to bring it to pass.

Hebrews 6:13-19 (NKJV) For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,

We see here how Abraham waited patiently for what God promised and then received it. But note that Paul says that God offers this hope to us. Therefore, this implies that we have to receive the hope that God has made available to us. It also says that this hope is an anchor for our souls firm and secure. This hope will not change. It must be accomplished if we, like Abraham, wait patiently on God.

APPLICATION

Now what should you do now that you know more about hope? First and above all concentrate your efforts on your primary hope, which should be in God. I believe that we should desire an intimate relationship with God. Desire God above all else. Pursue God and don't allow the desires for other things to obstruct your relationship with God. Spend time pursuing God in personal prayer time, Bible study, and just personal fellowship. Church is good but I don't think church is conducive to a personal relationship because church is not personal. Church has other benefits but I don't think that a personal relationship with God is one of them, except for instruction that you might receive that might be helpful in that endeavor.

OK, now that you are on your way and developing an intimate and personal relationship with God then it is time to start expending energies on the other things that you desire. For example, you might desire a new career, a new home, a new job, a new car, children, a husband or wife, or a new business. Now its time to start working instead of just wishing for your desires. If you merely wish for these things then you will most likely not receive them.

My point is that you will have to work in addition to trusting God to help you. God is not a genie so don't expect Him to hand your desire to you on a silver platter so to speak. God will bless what you do so you will have to do something-whatever that something is. Just don't be found doing nothing.

RISKS

Sometimes your activities might involve risks. However your faith should take you beyond that as long as your faith is founded on something dependable. Don't be surprised when you see a risk in front of you. There might be times however when things don't come out so good. Risks are a normal part of this life. Successful people report that they took risks and made sacrifices. Don't think that all blessings come to you on a silver platter. You might have to fight or work very hard for some.

CONCLUSION

Hope is the vision of your desire. Hope is the goal that you have. Pursue your goal and above all pursue God. Trust God to be with you and take care of you. Keep your hope alive and work at it. God will bless you if you are with Him and He is with you. Yes, get your hopes up because it is a good feeling and good for you. Trust God and go for it with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Don't just blindly do things but hope in God. Amen.

Pursuing the Truth Ministries