What does hope really mean?
The phrase “Love, hope & joy” decorates many homes, particularly in the South. But these rich characteristics are lost when diminished to only loosely described concepts. Those in the modern day church frequently slap it into conversation in an end-all-be-all comfort to “just have hope in God”.
And usually it’s left just at that. It leaves everyone involved wondering what that hope really means and how it’s supposed to be life-changing. Because if we’re honest with ourselves, many of us would say we hope in God. But I’m not sure how many of us actually think about what those words really mean.
In day-to-day life, we use the word ‘hope’ in a wishful way. “I hope to win the game” or “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that”. We have a desire but we aren’t certain in it, and definitely not confident. In fact, we’ll use the word as a sort of safety net. We may say, “I hope I can call you later” so that if we don’t remember to call that person we’ve covered ourselves with the intention but not promise to follow through. This is interestingly indicative of our increasingly non-committal society in America.
Biblical hope is different from what the word has morphed into today. And we miss the true meaning of hope when we apply how we use it today.
In 1 Peter 1:13, Peter describes Biblical hope: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The word “hope” here in Hebrew is elpis (ἐλπίς)”. It means to confide in the assurance of God expectantly. When we hope in God, we are expecting Him to be good because He’s promised it. And no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, God can be trusted and confided in and be your refuge for your future as well as your present.
Instead of the non-committal use of the word today, Biblical hope is something we entrust our whole life in. And hope is active. When you expectantly wait, you’re preparing for it.
A few years ago, Sunny and I got married. The wedding planning process was a lot. When I was engaged, I had a clear goal ahead of me. Something to prepare for. I knew what I wanted to get done, so I made millions of lists, parsing things down to monthly, weekly and daily goals. Before I was engaged, I certainly had dreams and thoughts of what my wedding would one day look like. But, I wasn’t actively planning it.
There is a shift in our mindset when we know for sure something is going to happen. Oh, that ‘blessed’ wedding countdown. When we can anticipate that in 8 months, 25 days, 13 hours and 21 minutes, it’s game time.
When you’re a Christian, you’re essentially engaged to be married. You aren’t blissfully dreaming of when you’ll “one day get married”. You’re planning a wedding. Living your life in preparation for that final day you’ll be fully united with God, your Groom. So, you prioritize your days coming up to the wedding in getting yourself ready for it. And like a bride wouldn’t put off ordering the caterer, booking the venue or purchasing her dress, so we need to be goal-oriented in our relationship with God. We aren’t here on earth for no reason.
The Bible has a much better example than mine in Matthew 25:1-15, the parable of the 10 virgins. All waiting for their groom. They didn’t know when he would come. Five were prepared, they hoped expectantly. The other five were not prepared. So when the groom was ready, only the five who were prepared went with him.
Do we live our life as if we’re not engaged, and think of being with God as merely a blissful idea and probability? Or do we live our lives like an organized bride, planning in expectant hope for her wedding day?
There’s so much more that can be said on what it means to wait expectantly for God’s goodness, but that will have to come on another day, in another blog.
