It is for us to ask and for God to grant or give. This is our hope.
Hope is more than a feeling; it’s a longed-for outcome, expectation, or deep anticipated satisfaction. The thing about hope is it is not an island unto itself. Wherever hope exists, patience is its companion or cohort. Hope and patience are inseparable Christian charges.
Hope without patience is a match without oxygen.
Christians who hope for anything and everything in Christ Jesus do so with patience.
Can hope live without patience? Can patience survive without hope?
Hope and patience walk the streets and paths of earth and heavenly desire, favorable outcomes, and change. As with buddies, there is much engagement between the two Christian attributes.
I imagine that hope and patience talk to and encourage one another. Patience encourages hope to stay the course of trust in God. Hope tells patience to wait because God is an on-time God.
Christians know that life’s challenges, troubles, pains, and groans make the hope of happiness that is in heaven greater.
Several biblical verses cite hope and patience together like conjoined twins.
Romans 8:25 (KJV) says, “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” This verse ends with a period, not with a question mark.
Does this verse suggest that patience exemplifies or is a part of hope? What makes the heart of hope beat for days, months, years, or a lifetime in wait for the jewels or our desires? What makes the time of patience travel as far as hope will go?
We cannot forget that everything has a time and season. But whatever the time or season, the hope of heaven abides with those who “be not moved away from the hope of the gospel (Col 1:23).”
1 Thessalonians 1:3 (KJV) declares Christians must continue their works of faith, labors of love, and patience of hope in Christ Jesus. The glorious hope of salvation is in Christ through the workings of patience and faith in God’s Word.
We hope for many earthly things, conditions, and circumstances. I hope to write my next book. I asked my granddaughter about her GPA. She said she hoped to have a 4.0 at the end of school.
We use hope in our daily conversations. I hope to be there. I hope to see you soon.
The definition of hope includes an optimistic state of mind regarding an expectation.
The biblical meaning of hope includes trusting God’s Word for an expectation or outcome.
Romans 8:24 (KJV) says, “But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”
Zachariah and Elizabeth hoped and prayed for a child for what seemed like eons to them. They wondered if it would ever happen. When Zachariah became old, his ageless yet mature hope stood at the gate of God’s will. The door opened, and Elizabeth became pregnant in her old age.
Zachariah prayed for a child, and God gave him a prophet of the highest, John, the forerunner and messenger of Jesus Christ.
When we turn our hope towards others, the community, city, state, America, and the world, we hope for healing, peace, and love.
When we turn our hope to God, what seems impossible becomes possible.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ”But I know somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
Desmond Tutu said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
Patiently wait with hope.
Be well.