Hope – the backbone of faith

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Have you waited for something all your life and thought you were finally about to get it and then, just then, everything vaporizes and you are left feeling empty, unfulfilled, unwanted or a failure? Have you ever thought you are living your dream only to find that it was not the real thing? Have you ever had a man or woman walk out of your life when you thought they were the one? I believe most of us will say yes to at least one of the questions above; I want you to know you are not alone. The Word of God is so true, as always, when it says hope deferred makes the heart sick; many people have ended their own lives when they think all hope is lost; some people have compromised when they think there is no hope, others have settled for whatever comes their way because they stopped hoping. When hope is absent, the anchor for our soul is missing (Heb 6:19); he that stops hoping stops living. We can not afford to stop hoping - hope is the backbone of faith.

1 Corinthians 13:13 - Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.

Though hope is not as much spoken about in churches compared to faith and love, it is one of the three things that will last forever. Faith is anchored on hope; without hope, there is no faith. Why? Because faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb 11:1). We can clearly see that in the absence of hope, faith cannot exist, which means the absence of pleasing God (Heb 11:6). So, it is important to understand what hope is. What is hope? Let’s look at other translations of Heb 11:1

God’s Word Translation: Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.
Jubilee Bible 2000: Faith, therefore, is the substance of things waited for, the evidence of things not seen.

In these versions of the bible,hope is interpreted as expectation and a waiting for; expectation or a waiting for what? Romans 4:18 provides the answer to this question:

Romans 4:18 - 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 (NIV).

Abraham hoped against all hope, expected, and waited for the promise God made him; his hope, expectation, and waiting for was totally based on a promise God made to him. So the hope that is the backbone of faith in God is based on the Word/promise of God. From these scriptures we can see why sometimes the claim of being in faith about something may not be necessarily true because a number of times, the hope/expectation are not based on the Word or promise of God. Psalm 119:114 also affirms this truth:

Psalm 119:114 - You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope (NLT).

Your word is my source of hope! This scripture confirms what we see in the life of the father of faith, Abraham. The source of hope that brings about true faith is the Word of God! There are also expectations based on the lies of the devil and his words; these expectations also bring about results, but results that are not God's will for our lives. Now, my question to us is: what is our hope or expectation based on? If it is not based on God’s Word or a Word from God, we need to search the scriptures for a Word to anchor our souls in regards to the situation. When our hope is based on the Word of God or a Word from God, then our faith can be in God.