"Adding Hope to Our Faith"
By Steve Backlund
Hope is an overall optimistic attitude about the future based on the goodness and promises of God. I believe in many ways, hope precedes faith, but in my own experience, I believe it is also good to have a plan to add hope to our faith.
The end of 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.” For so long in my spiritual journey, I valued faith and love but devalued hope.
What is the difference between hope and faith?
Faith is very specific while hope is more general. Faith says, “God is going to do this!” Hope says, “I don’t know exactly what God is going to do, but good things are coming.” Faith says, “This exact prayer will be answered!” Hope says, “I’m going to thrive while waiting for that prayer to be answered, but even if it never is, I’ll thrive anyway.” Faith says, “I’m going to get the job!” Hope says, “Even if I don’t get the job, I’ll thrive.”
Faith people without hope tend to put all their eggs in one basket and believe unless certain things happen they can’t live. Hope people think they have many options to get to where God wants them to be.
Years ago while preaching with my wife, Wendy on the topic of hope, she said, “Faith without hope is weird.” And it is kind of weird! Our faith is not healthy without hope. Hope is the safety net for if what we believe for in faith doesn’t happen.
I’m not saying we should never believe for things in faith. In Romans 4:18, Romans says about Abraham “...against all hope, he believed.” He was to put his specific faith belief (”father of a multitude”) into the soil of hope (his overall optimism for the future).
Here are more examples showing the difference between faith and hope. Faith says, “This person is going to get elected.” Hope says, “Even if that person doesn’t get elected, I’ll thrive.” God’s got a purpose, He’s got a plan. Faith says, “I’m going to get married.” Hope says, “While I’m waiting I’ll thrive, and even if I don’t get married I’ll thrive.”
Having a GPS on our phones and cars is so helpful in getting us where we need to go. You’ll notice when you take a wrong turn, your GPS says this powerful word: Rerouting. However, if you had a hope-free GPS, here is what it would say to you after you take a wrong turn: “This trip is over. You just blew it. I can’t get you where you need to be from here. Pull the car over. Turn off the engine. Exit the vehicle. This is the end.” Ha ha.Faith people without hope have a hard time overcoming disappointment because of a tendency to believe that we can’t live unless certain outcomes happen.
Hope deficient faith-people tend to carry around a spirit of heaviness in their lives while they wait for the answer to come. But faith-people with hope are delighters in the Lord while they’re waiting! Delighting is a key that increases the likelihood of the promise being realized.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” The delighter is delighting with unfulfilled desires. They are delighting in times of disappointment where things they desire have not yet happened. The mantra of the delighter is, “God, I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do about this situation!” It is the opposite of the spirit of heaviness.
You and I both have things we’re tempted to believe we can’t have hope about. Maybe it’s family situations or your current job situation. It could be something in ministry where you are not seeing fruit in your life. The greatest fruit is what God is doing in us. What’s happening in us is almost always more important than what's happening through us.
I bless you today with a healthy faith that has hope attached to it. It will help you overcome disappointment, celebrate more in worship than ever before, and to find possibilities and options you never would have seen without hope.