“I hope so….” I hear it all the time. Heck, I say it all the time! But like a lot words over time, I've heard it and have said it so much that I dumbed it down, and turned it into something it does not mean. Love is another word I feel like we’ve all done this to. “I love cake” or “I love these shoes,” but even more dangerous, “I love you.”
But when I use “hope” in this way, I say it with such doubt that even though I’m saying “hope” with my lips, I’m really saying wish in my heart.
So after thinking a while, it hit me. What happens when I see that word in the Bible? If hope in my heart includes the doubt in my eyes, then without knowing it, I’ve lost it completely and become blinded by my own deceitful heart.
The words I feel have changed the most in our Christian vocabulary are words like Hope, Love, Faith, Peace, Joy...etc. The same words we find as fruits of the Spirit.“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23)
When we have our own ideas of what these things are, I think it creates a gulf in our understanding of the Spirit because it filters all of our thoughts through the flesh. But the scriptures tell us that these cannot coexist. That my flesh can’t understand the spiritual things, and the Spirit will not share the thrown of my heart with the flesh. And while Hope isn’t listed as a fruit of the spirit, it is hand-in-hand with Faith in the work of salvation.
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? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:24-25)
A popular and similar verse to that is:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Eph. 2:8)
Where Faith and Hope meet...
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)
We are saved both by Hope and Faith, meaning that the Hope of dwelling in Christ with the savior is an oncoming event that is to be waited for. Our Faith in what Christ did for us through his death, as well as the continual work of the Holy Spirit, is what leads us to our Hope. Hope defined this way means that it isn’t something that may happen, but a something I will see if I continue on to it. Hope is the destination, and Faith is the way to get there.
James says in chapter 2, that Faith without works is dead. Controversial and confusing text to some, but it has to be understood that these works are not to gain Faith, these works a product OF Faith. These works are seen of men, that we may prove our faith, that is to say, explain what it is we have hope in, that is to say, Christ. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)
In short, wishing is not hoping. Not to say that if you have doubts, then something is wrong because there are plenty of reasons to doubt the work of the Spirit, however the Gospel is an ultimatum whether I like it or not. If I am going to claim the name of Christ I must choose which way I will go: in my own understanding, limited to what I can see and know; or walking without sight, trusting that each step into the uncomfortable and unknown will land on solid ground.
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