What the Bible teaches us about Hope

Hope is all about what God is doing

The Psalms are awash with hope, as are the biblical prophets.  Isaiah 40:31 But they who wait 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.  Isaiah offers the assurance that hoping in God brings with it a renewal of strength, an inner strength that enables them to come through hardships and struggles and find peace during struggles.  They go into them relying not on their strengths but with the inner power of the almighty God. Even Job, in his inconceivable situation, proclaims hope. This hope is not defeated by doubt about God’s power and goodness—Hope is certain, no matter what.  Hope is certain.  Hope is a divine guarantee for all who believe and preserver in faith.

Hope is a living reality and not just a word

The Bible gives us the word “hope” to hold on to all throughout Scripture. No matter what our living situation, Hope is there as an anchor, a guarantee that no matter how dark the moment, there is a future because God reigns over his creation.   The word “Hope” appears nearly 100 times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, but it is a great deal more than a concept.  But we know God’s word is alive, is active, cutting through our human limitations like a two-edged sword.  It is because we know God’s word is alive that we get up and persevere in faithfulness, leaving it to God to fulfil those promises. 

How then might we come to an understanding of biblical Hope?

Hope Is Expectant

In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words, qawa and batah are used to illustrate the way our hope in God is reliable. Hoping in God will not lead to disappointment.  They remind us that by living out biblical Hope, we will not be left stranded, which is our experience when we rely on our own strengths and the powers of this created world to guarantee our future.  You can find qawa woven into biblical prayers, expressing the belief that God is already working on transforming our hopes into reality.  Hope thus indicates that we are moving on in anticipation of God fulfilling the divine promises to his people. 

The Psalms offer declarations of trust in God, of living in this world in the sure and certain hope of God’s deliverance from all those things of this world that seek to drag us down and destroy us.   

Isaiah 40:31 (as above) assures us that those who hope in the Lord will have their strength renewed. Using the image of an eagle soaring on the wind currents, flying over and beyond the perils below, he brings to the people the promises of God that there is more to life than just the mundane life “below”.  God gives us a greater perspective, opens new possibilities, and guarantees that nothing will tie us down.  Even Job, in his inconceivable situation, proclaims, “Though he slaughters me, I will hope in him.”

What is so powerful in this quotation is the way Hope is not diminished when we struggle to overcome doubt and despair.  God’s gift of hope remains certain, working away to transform us from within.  Through knowing and believing that God is faithful to his promises, we continue forward, guided by light in the darkest of experiences.

What the New Testament adds to this Hebrew experience of hope, to the Old Testament understandings, is a further dimension.  Hope is not just something that transforms the way we live in this world; hope is a guarantee of life beyond the grave.  Hope transforms the grave into a passage to eternity.  Jesus the Saviour links salvation to Hope.  Knowing that we are saved, and knowing that if we live in Christ, we will rise with him and share an eternal life with him around the throne of God.   “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hopefully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

Hope Demonstrates Trust in God Forever

The Scriptures warn us many times of the dangers of putting our hope, or trust, in anything other than God. Relying on what this earth can provide for us in the way of encouragement and reassurance is a dead end.  Such hopes are a delusion, a wraithlike mirage.  In the Psalms, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Isaiah, the faithful are reminded not to trust in riches, idols, foreign powers, military, princes, or even other humans.

To hope in the God who reveals himself in the Scriptures is to firmly place your trust in what God says. If God says something, it is certain.  In these situations, hope is not “I wish God’s promises were true”. Hope is nothing short of a guarantee that God can be relied upon, that if God says something it is already on the way to becoming a reality.  Already happening.

In the New Testament we find set out for us the multitude of promises God makes for us in Jesus the Son of God and our Saviour.  In Christ there is: salvation, resurrection, acceptance, forgiveness of sins, light in darkness and the redemption of the whole of creation.   Hope, the scriptures tell us, does not just tell us truths about the content of hope and faith, it actively works on transforming us.  It does something… “putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thess. 5:8).

Hope Is Foundational to Faith

The clearest expression of this is found in the Letter to the Hebrews:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

This is a part of the message of chapter 11, where Hebrews sets out for us the narrative of those great biblical figures who make up the “hall of faith,” a list of saints that includes Abraham. Abraham had no idea what God’s plan was.  There was no way he could even imagine the greatness of God’s plan for himself and for the entire creation.  But his hope was steady. It was placed firmly in God’s promise of an inheritance, and he knew he could build his life around these promises because God was faithful and true. 

From the beginning, God has been empowering, calling forth, promising, fulfilling, leading, forgiving, protecting and proving hope to be the foundation foundational to our faith. Just as our forefathers walked by faith, we too can obey God’s leading because we are confident in what we hope for. God has a track record, a track record of being true to his divine word.  “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Romans 4:18)….and “For in this hope we were saved.” (Romans 8:24).

Hope Is Not a Transient Feeling

Hope is the gift of God that makes it possible for us to experience peace and joy and to know with certainty that our lives have meaning and that in Christ we are called to be collaborators in the plan of God for the salvation of all.   Hope is not some heady emotion that colours our lives at times.  Hope is a gift of God that sustains us in good times and in the not-so-good times.  

Hope does not mean that our lives will be trouble-free, without the pain and uncertainty.  What it guarantees is that these things will not overwhelm us but console us and comfort us with an undimmable light of reassurance.  It achieves this because Hope unites us to Christ in our midst.   “knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint...” (Romans 5:3-5).

Hope is not blind and hope is not a Gamble

In New Testament Greek, hope, means to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence. The forgiveness and redemption in which we hope has already been proven and through a multitude of narratives across the entire Bible, shown to be reliable.  Hope has empowered the saints to endure in faithfulness through the darkest and most challenging of times. 

Most of all, it is hope in the return of Jesus as Judge of the living and the dead that sustains and empowers us.   Eternal life with God is guaranteed and offered basis of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus from the grave.   He is already risen.  There is no doubting that reality.  His resurrection is our guarantee of overcoming the grave.    The Father remained true to his promises in raising the Son and in his rising is our hope.  He is the firstborn, and we will follow in the same trajectory from the grave.  Hope in the New Testament means looking to the future with assurance.  Because we know Jesus, we know we have hope… “In his name, the nations will put their hope” (Matthew 12:21)…and “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

Hope Is a Gift from God

Hope is not something we can build up within ourselves, in the way we build up our physical strength by going to the Gym.   Hope is a gift. A free unearned gift. Hope is built up within us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  In Jeremiah, God was already revealing his plan to give us this hope forever. Faith leads us to living out our lives in the presence of God.  This is not all about us having a better life,  Our hope is invested in the divine promises of a new life beyond our wildest imaginations…“’ For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’”  (Jeremiah 29:11).

The Incredible Gift of Hope

God has given us the gift of hope. It is as certain as the fact that he gave us life. It is the foundation on which we build our lives and the divine hand that shapes us so that we live in divine blessings.  Hope believes that even death cannot hold us from God’s great eternal plan, and the same hope strengthens us through everything the world throws up and all that seeks to crush those hopes“...the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Psalm 147:11).

Bishop Michael Hough                                                                  April 2025