The Place Called Home

Hope is a powerful word. We all have things we hope will happen. 

Maybe you hope to accomplish a goal that’s been set for too long. 

Usually when we use the word “hope” we use it in a wishing sort of sense. 

Maybe you’re hoping for a new job to pan out. Or even something as small as hoping it doesn’t rain tomorrow. 

We use hope often to give our preference for how we want something to turn out. 

God is the God of all hope. And His version of hope isn’t wishful thinking. It’s an expectation. If we hope in God, we wait for Him with expectancy. 

If God says something, He means it and it will come to pass. No doubts, no questions. We can have hope in the Lord. Certainty that what He said will be. Because we know He is trustworthy and perfectly capable. 

Here are 10 verses to help you be a little more hopeful.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

The entire chapter of Hebrews 11 is perfect for examples of faith and the hope that came from it.

Because of the faith we have in God, we have hope. And that hope gives us confidence in God’s promises. My study Bible describes faith as “a settled confidence that something in the future–something God has promised–will actually happen because God will make it happen.” 

God is our hope. He is the source of it. He is the assurance of things hoped for. Because we know who God is, we can be convinced of things we can’t see. 

We don’t have to be scared off from believing based on our circumstances. Hebrews 11 uses examples from all throughout scripture to combat this fear and really show how powerful hope in God really is. 

Noah had faith in God and because of that, he obeyed His instructions to build the ark, giving hope of safety to everyone inside it. 

Abraham had faith to follow God’s leading Him to a new land, “not knowing where he was going (v. 8),” giving all of his descendants the hope of God’s personal care and attention. 

Even in her disbelief at times, Sarah hoped in the Lord’s promise of a son even though she was far past the age to be able to have a child. 

Verse 6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Because of their faith in God, He was “not ashamed to be called their God (v. 16).” 

When we trust God to act, especially when it looks impossible on our end, we please Him.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

This is my favorite verse about hope.

Why is this one my favorite? 

In the middle of judgment, in the middle of exile, Jeremiah sends a letter of God’s words to “all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (v. 1).” He tells them to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce (v. 5).” 

He tells them to keep living even in the midst of exile. 

They likely would have seen no future for themselves. No hope. But God is the hope. He holds the future and He crafts it. 

Nothing is too hard for God. There is no end until God says so. 

And He said there’s a future for them. Not of evil, which is how their situation felt, but a future and hope for their good. For their welfare. 

He promises in verse 10 that when their judgment is over, He would “fulfill to [them His] promise and bring [them] back to [their land].” He knew where they were and He wasn’t about to let that be the end of His people. 

He made them an additional promise of a future in which they would “seek [Him] and find [Him]” that He would “be found by [them] (v. 13-14).” 

God promises His people, very confidently, that they would find Him if they sought Him with all their heart. They would get to know Him again and He would save them. No questions asked. 

They were in exile because of their own unfaithfulness, but God reminds them that He loves them and that He’s not finished with them. He has great plans for them that are good. He hasn’t forgotten them or written them off. 

There is so much promise in this section. I could write a whole post on Jeremiah alone. It’s one of my favorite books in the bible and it’s really where God started to introduce the idea of hope to me as a personal concept. 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13

God is the God of hope. Our source of joy. Our source of peace. He has the power to fulfill our hopes. To the extent we can “abound” in it. 

Merriam-Webster has a definition of hope that I really like: “to cherish with anticipation.” They continue to describe hope as the act of desiring something “with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.” 

We can abound in hope, full of joy and peace in believing God’s promises because we know He comes through. We can cherish His promises with the anticipation of them being fulfilled. 

Our God is faithful to keep His word. 

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

And because our God is faithful, we can hold onto His promises “without wavering.” We don’t have to be afraid to maintain hope in God because He won’t let us down. 

We can talk about the things God’s doing as if they’re already done, fully confident that they will be. That they already are done as far as God’s concerned. 

He’s faithful. He’s reliable. He’s trustworthy. 

And so we can hold fast to the things God’s already said, knowing that He won’t leave us wanting. He won’t leave us without. God will meet every last one of our needs.

His word is a perfect list of examples of God’s faithfulness. And we can have hope because of His faithfulness. 

“But I will hope continually and will praise You yet more and more.” Psalm 71:14

To hope continually is to hope regardless of the timeline or the circumstances. We’re often impatient for answers and breakthroughs–I know I am! 

But God works on His own timeline. He’s never late, but also not early. He arrives so perfectly on time that we have to trust Him to come through. 

This psalm was prayed as a plea for rescue from danger. He’s asking God to come into the middle of his situation and be his help. To be his “rock of refuge, to which [he] may continually come (v. 3).”

And all throughout this plea for rescue, the psalmist praises the Lord, knowing that he can place his hope in God. That He will come through as He always has before. 

“For You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon You I have leaned from before my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of You.” Psalm 71:5-6

The psalmist has trusted God before and knows that he can trust Him now too.

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love.” Psalm 33:18

God can be trusted and relied upon because, not only is He capable, He loves us. He has the ability and the desire to help us. To fulfill His role as our hope. 

We can wait on His timing with confident hope, confident expectation, because He loves us. 

God is a greater hope than anything else because of His great love for us. We can hope in Him because “He is our help and our shield (v. 20).” 

Because He’s already proven Himself. “For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm (v. 9).” 

We can wait joyfully, expectantly, because of His love for us. Nothing else is a greater source of hope for us than God. 

Not our own strength or ability. Not anyone else’s. Not more money or other resources. 

He watches out for us and provides for every one of our needs. 

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.” Psalm 130:5

This verse echoes another of my favorites, Psalm 27:13-14. “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” 

These verses go hand in hand with each other. 

Because we know that the word of our Lord is true, we can hope in it. And because we can have hope in His word, we can wait with strong and courageous hearts, unafraid of the wait and sure of the coming fulfillment of His word. 

God commonly gives us this encouragement, to be strong and courageous. It’s a command to trust Him. To have faith in His ability and in His love. To have confident hope that He will come through for us. 

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

The bible continually reaffirms itself throughout scripture. This verse in Romans confirms the verses from Psalms. 

We can wait confidently, hoping in God to come through. Waiting with strong and courageous hearts, knowing that our hope won’t put us to shame. We won’t be sitting here at the end of it all with nothing to show for our hope in God. 

This specific hope that Paul is talking about is the hope of eternal life through Jesus’ death and resurrection, but it also applies to all of God’s words. 

Nothing that God says will be unfulfilled. He does everything that He sets out to do. The big and the small. 

If God says something, He means it. And He means to fulfill it. 

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:24-25

Faith feels dangerous. To hope in what you can’t see feels like asking for disappointment sometimes. But God is not a God of disappointment. He’s already given us the hope of eternal life in Him, of salvation through His Son. 

Later in this same chapter, Paul reminds us that God didn’t even “spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? (v. 32).” 

We serve a God of hope. He’s perfectly trustworthy. Perfectly capable. He won’t let us down. 

If God has given you a promise, seek Him on it. Make sure that it’s His voice you’re hearing, that it aligns with scripture. And if you’ve sought Him, if you know He’s told you, then trust Him. He won’t let you down. 

Pray about it, believing that He will make everything happen that He’s said He will. Hope is a strong thing. 

And know if God redirects you, you can have confident hope that He knows what He’s doing. He won’t forget you or leave you out. 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12

God understands that when we hope for something for a long time, it can create such a longing in us so as to make us feel literally sick. 

He’s not immune to our feelings or difficulties or sufferings. He’s not waiting for us to get over it. He understands how we feel. 

Jesus wept over Lazarus’ death even though He knew He would raise him from the dead in a moment’s time. He took the time to mourn first. He understands our own mourning too, whatever the cause of it. 

And if we place our hope in anyone or anything else, we don’t have that guarantee of fulfillment that we have in God. 

But if we hope in God, we get to experience the second half of this verse, the joy of a desire fulfilled. 

Hope is Strong.

It gives us joy as we look forward to it. 

But hope also requires trust. And trust requires us to know God. To know His character. 

If we don’t know Him, how can we trust Him? And if we don’t trust Him, then how can we expect to hold onto hope? 

If we know God and trust Him, then we can have peace about relying on His words. He won’t let us down. 

Jeremiah 1:12 says the Lord “[watches] over [His] word to perform it.” He doesn’t forget even for a moment the things He’s promised. God is faithful to fulfill His words. 

Any word from God is a promise. He doesn’t change His mind. He doesn’t forget or go back on His word. 

We can have a confident, expectant hope in our God because His word is truth. He comes through. 

“For all the promises of God find their yes in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).” 

He’s already come through on the biggest promise of all. He’s already delivered our greatest hope of salvation in Jesus and reconciliation with Him. 

Our God is a way maker. If He’s already made the way on something so amazingly great as defeating death and sin, is anything too hard for Him? 

He’s already done this much for you. He won’t hold back anything that’s good for us. 

The only thing to remember is that God is the One who knows best what’s good for us and what isn’t. He created us and knows all of our days from start to finish. We may not always understand what He’s doing, and likely won’t. But God does. 

Trust Him. If you’ve heard something you believe is from God, ask Him about it. Seek Him for the answer. And if He says yes, hope in it. Hope in God to fulfill His word. 

You won’t be let down.