Faith and Hope

Biblical hope is inseparable therefore from faith in God. Because of what God has done in the past, particularly in preparing for the coming of Christ, and because of what God has done and is now doing through Christ, the Christian dares to expect future blessings at present invisible (2 Cor. 1:10). The goodness of God is for him never exhausted. The best is still to be. His hope is increased as he reflects on the activities of God in the Scriptures (Rom. 12:12; 15:4).

R. V. G. Tasker, “Hope,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 480.

When our kids where little and would only eat one thing everyday my wife Stephanie would call it a food jag. I sometimes have also been on a food jag. I have missed the connection between faith and hope. I have focused for years on faith but missed that the thing that gives faith stamina is hope. In the above definition of Hope there is a sentence that reads "The goodness of God is for him never exhausted." God is good and loves us so much. When we get into ruts waiting for the promised thing to come forth it is because we have lost hope that God is good. God wants to deliver us and give us the things He has told us to stand for. IF we loose hope than we get into a spiral of works trying to make it happen and our prayers become a form of striving trying to force God to move. Instead of resting in the promise of God and having hope that He is good and we can have a foundation of hope in Him. I am tired of pushing things through and trying to force things to happen. Do I need to work hard yes but from a place of rest and hope not striving and worry.