My Hope is Not by Chance
“I hope I get that job.” “I hope I stay healthy.” “I hope my kids turn out ok.” “I am hoping for world peace.”
In today’s culture, we use the word “hope” to convey a wish or that by chance or fate something good will happen in our favor. We believe that if we can remain positive or “think” something into existence that it might just happen.
When the Bible mentions “hope” it is not referencing something by chance. Throughout the Bible, we read that our hope is sure, that we can be confident in what God is promising us. We can often exchange the word “confidence” with the word “hope.”
Here are some examples:
Psalm 39:7: And now, oh Lord, for what do I wait? My hope (confidence) is in you.
Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the assurance (confidence) of things hoped for…
Titus 2:13: Waiting for our blessed hope (confidence), the appearing of… Jesus Christ.
A believer can be confident in God’s promises being fulfilled because He is faithful. He is unchanging and cannot lie. What He says is true and comes to pass. As a result, we can have the confidence in knowing that what God has told us is true.
Therefore, I can have hope in my salvation — the confidence in knowing He has saved me. I can have hope in my eternal security — the confidence to know that the Holy Spirit has sealed me, and I cannot be taken from God’s hand. I can have hope in my eternal home in Heaven — the confidence in knowing that Jesus is preparing a place for me and will return to get me and take me to His home. I can have hope to trust in the Lord, which leads to a peace that passes all understanding — the confidence in knowing God is in control and I can trust Him through my trials and gain an inner peace that the world cannot give me.
When the Bible passage mentions hope, it is always in context of God’s faithfulness, assuring us that what He has promised, He will do. We can place our hope (confidence) in Christ, not hoping that by chance we will be saved from His wrath and judgment, but rather knowing that once we believe in the name of Jesus we are assured that we are now no longer under His condemnation (Romans 8:1), that we not only escape God’s wrath and judgment but that we are eternally saved and spending eternity with God as His child and joint-heir with Jesus!
Hebrews 13:6 states that we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper… God is good and He works all things in our lives for our good, to conform us into the image of Jesus and to prepare us for eternity with Him.
A believer never needs to “hope” (wish or question) that at the end of life the “good” will outweigh the “bad” to gain acceptance with God. No person can attain that level of goodness on his/her own (Romans 3:10, 23). A believer can have “hope” (confidence, assuredness) in Christ Jesus that He is faithful (Hebrews 10:23; I Thessalonians 5:24) and will complete the work that He began in you (Philippians 1:6).
God’s promises are sure, enduring, and always come to pass. You can rest in the Lord, assured of your faith and confident in His goodness and faithfulness to you. This results in inner peace in the midst of turmoil, thankfulness to God and joy unspeakable in our eternal security, and the hope (confidence) in experiencing God’s love as His child.
