Credit goes to Rick Warren who presented a sermon on the topic of “Hope is my Anchor” and gave me a starting point and content for this little devotional. In our previous discussions, we have focused on Love, Grace and now we will tackle Hope, the least discussed of the three, I believe.
It is critically important that we understand hope since scripture says:
…those who forget God have no hope. They are like rushes without any mire to grow in; or grass without water to keep it alive. Suddenly it begins to wither, even before it is cut. — Job 8:11-13 TLB
But what is hope? I found two definitions. In the dictionary, hope means a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. And, in a Bible dictionary, I found a very similar meaning of to trust in, wait for, or desire something; or to expect something beneficial in the future. Is that the way we use the word “hope?” Are we using the word “hope” in the right way or is it optimism (hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something) we are meaning? What is the difference? Here’s an example: It’s springtime regardless of what the weather looks like outside. So, I can say “I hope it is sunny every day this spring.” We are hopeful of that, but it isn’t a certain hope, it isn’t based in reality, it is optimistic. And, optimism is better than pessimism where we would say, “It’s spring and it will probably be gloomy and cold all season” which is definitely not hopeful. However, we truly do have the hope of spring. It is spring. Optimism only works for things you can control. When something bad happens, optimism says, “It’s not as bad as you think,” but hope would say, “It’s bad, it’s really bad, BUT I still believe it will get better.” Optimism is Psychological and Hope is Theological.
There are three kinds of hope. The first is wishful hope, which is what I described above and what most of us use the word “hope’ for. “I hope the light turns green.” This is worthless hope. It is a false hope. There is nothing that will change the light by your hoping.
The second kind of hope is expectant hope. This hope has some basis in reality. For example, if you plant seeds, you can hope they grow. (Wishful hope would be hoping your garden grew without planting any seeds.) So, you can have expectant hope, you planted seeds and you hope they grow, but will they grow for certain? They may or may not.
Lastly, there is CERTAIN HOPE and this is the Biblical use of the word hope. Hebrews 6:19a says:
This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God… (TLB)
Real hope is based on God’s word and NOT my wishes. There is no doubt in certain hope. You can count on God’s promises because they are sure things and you will want to build your life on this type of hope. The above verse tells us the three things that certain hope is. It is strong, trustworthy and it’s an anchor.
Using the anchor illustration, let’s explore what an anchor is used for. It is used to keep a ship from drifting and it adds stability in a storm. Doesn’t God’s word do that for us? Without an anchor, it is easy to drift downstream and without being connected to God and His word, it is easy for us to drift too. We also need this certain hope for stability. The bigger the ship, the bigger the anchor needed. So in our lives, what does that look like? If you want to live a little life and stay uninvolved and not do a mighty work for God, then you can get away with a teeny tiny anchor, however, if your life involves others and you want to live a big, full, abundant life, you are going to need a big anchor. A big anchor for your soul.
We get this certain hope, aka “anchor” from God’s word. Certain hope is based on God’s promises in the Bible. As Rick Warren stated,
“Certain hope is not based on what is sensed, but what is said. Not based on my emotions but what is spoken and it is not based on my Imagination, but on God’s obligation to do what he says he will do.”
There are approximately (because who can truly count them?) 8,810 promises and 7,487 of them are made by God to us! One thing we are certain of is that God can’t lie, so these promises are what we should stand on. When we put our hope in His promises we can be certain of them.
One big ah-ha moment I got when I was studying this topic was that we can be certain of God’s promises, but the thing that I sometimes don’t take into account is that God has all of eternity to make his promises come true. He is not limited to our life here on earth. So when we hope for something, and we check it against His word, He has until eternity to fulfill his promise, but we can be filled with hope because we know that he will!
The more we know his promises, the closer we will be to him, and the closer we are to Him, the more hopeful we will be. I read that hope gives the motivation and courage needed to succeed. It’s been said that a person can live forty days without food, four days without water, four minutes without air, but only four seconds without hope. I think that is a major incentive for us to look for the certain hope that we know is available to us!
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