Hope

Of “hope” (elpis in the Greek) Barclay contends, “The Christian hope is not simply a trembling, hesitant hope that perhaps the promises  of God may be true. It is the confident expectation that they cannot be anything else but true.”

This goes to show how crucial it is to really know the meaning behind words. Biblical “hope” is much different than the hope of our time. We hope that our favorite team wins the SuperBowl, World Series or National Championship, fulling knowing that they might or might not. The Christian’s hope is more akin to Joe Namath’s guarantee of victory, except our guarantee is from God. This is why we can “wait…with patience” for what we do not see (Romans 8:24-25).

Think about how you use the word “hope” in your everyday vocabulary. Let’s try not to confuse the common usage with the biblical one. The biblical usage is steeped in confidence and expectation; the common usage is nothing more than wanting what may or may not happen.