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No doubt you are familiar with the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 which says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Faith, hope and love are absolute essentials in our lives as Christians. They are the three qualities which always remain. They make us strong, and when the three join together—when we are full of faith, hope and love—then we are balanced and ready to go forward with what God has planned for us to do.
We talk more about faith and love that we do hope, as a rule, but honestly, life without hope is no life at all. Hope is mentioned in the Bible more than 167 times. But have you ever asked why hope is so important?
Well, first we need to understand the difference between our casual use of the word “hope,” and the Bible’s meaning. Often we talk about hope when something in the future is not certain. We say, I hope it won’t rain today or I hope I’ll get a raise. But when the Bible speaks of hope, it means that something in the future is certain. It means you can be confident because your hope in God is firm and secure. For example, when we are born from above through faith in Jesus Christ, we have the hope of eternal life. But that hope is certain and sure; there’s no uncertainty in that hope for our future.
Why is hope so important to us in our daily lives and in our hearts and minds? Well, for one reason, hope gives us an eternal perspective. Hope helps us to see beyond the present circumstances and believe that there are good days ahead. When we are at our lowest point, hope lifts our head, convinces us that we have a future and a hope, as we read in Jeremiah 29:11:
“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.”
Hope is what we’re focusing on here at The Christian Working Woman this month. God has plans for you if you are a Christ-follower, and those plans give you hope, even though you may not know exactly what they are right at this moment.