Articles
The Light of Hope
Around the world, believers in God can talk about hope and faith as though they are identical, but they are two different concepts. Renowned author and Naturalist, Jane Goodall, said, “Faith is when you actually believe there is an intellectual power behind the universe. You believe in God, the Creator. You believe in life after death or some other doctrine. That’s faith. We can believe that these things are true, but we can’t know. But we can know the direction we want to go and we can hope that it is the right direction. Hope is more humble than faith, since no one can know the future.” Biblically, faith is knowing scriptural truth while hope is putting your actionable belief behind that truth. Thus, a person must have faith in order to have a true sense of hope. Without faith, hope is merely wishful thinking.
In Exodus, the Israelites had moments where their fear caused them to forget their knowledge of God. When Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai in Exodus 32, the Israelites lost their hope of Moses returning to them. Thus, they encouraged Aaron to make an idol for them to worship. They had forgotten that God had been the one who lead out of Egypt. After crossing the Red Sea, He guided them through the wilderness as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Ex. 13:17-22). At Mount Sinai, the Israelites were impatient as they waited for Moses to return. Fear set in and they worshipped manmade objects, instead of turning to God for steadfastness. When we face obstacles, where does our hope turn to[1]?
The apostle Paul had more than just a wishful hope in his heart. Philippians 1:20-22a, “As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” Paul had such a faith and hope in Christ, that he was willing to be beaten and imprisoned for His sake. Paul faced many trying obstacles after becoming a child of God, but he never let them distract him from his faith in God. Therefore, he never lost hope. His hope even caused him to say that his own death would be a gain because he could then spend his eternity with Christ. Is our faith and hope in Christ strong enough to say that death would be a gain?
[1] The poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Robert Hart is an interesting read to accompany this question
