What is Hope?
Blessed is she who believed that the Lord’s promises to her would be fulfilled. Luke 1:45
Hope enables us to desire heaven above all things and believe that we can attain it through God’s grace and our cooperation with it. Hope is confidence that what God has promised – strength, peace, and eternal life, He will also make possible. Its opposite is the sin of despair, by which we don’t believe that God can or will give us the grace to save us.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of his glory…. Ephesians 1:18.
Here are some of God’s promises that fuel our hope:
I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. John 14:27
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29
He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31