More Like Jesus: Reflections on Hope

Hope is one of the three virtues which the apostle Paul listed in 1 Corinthians 13:13:

Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.¹

Hope is commonly used to mean a “wish” or a “desire”; however, Christian hope implies the expectation of obtaining the good that is desired.

“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.”—R. C. Sproul

“My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.”—Psalm 62:5 NAS

“The hope that God has provided for you is not merely a wish. Neither is it dependent on other people, possessions, or circumstances for its validity. Instead, biblical hope is an application of your faith that supplies a confident expectation in God’s fulfillment of His promises. Coupled with faith and love, hope is part of the abiding characteristics in a believer’s life.”—John C. Broger

“God is the only one who can make the valley of trouble a door of hope.”—Catherine Marshall

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”—Jeremiah 29:11 NKJ

“A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory.”—Thomas Brooks

“What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”—Emil Brunner

“The cross of Christ is the true ground and chief cause of Christian hope.”—Pope Leo I

“As Christians, we have no reason to lack hope. Christ has shown the trustworthiness of God and of His Word.”—Chuck Colson

“Notice the word ‘hope’ (in Psalm 62:5). The Hebrew term literally means ‘a cord, as an attachment.’ Every one of us is hanging on to something or someone for security ... if it’s someone or something other than God alone, you’re hanging on by a thread—the wrong thread.”—Beth Moore

“Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.”—Thomas Aquinas

“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.”—Job 11:18–19 NIV

“What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God.”—Unknown

“Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit until it permeates all your thoughts and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength. Rejoice that the Lord Jesus has become your strength and your song—He has become your salvation.”—Charles Spurgeon

“They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”—Isaiah 40:31 NIV

“Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.”—Gilbert M. Beeken

“In all things it is better to hope than to despair.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”—O. S. Marden

“Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”—J. I. Packer

“Biblical hope is life-changing certainty about the future ... being certain about the future in a way that affects how you live now.”—Timothy Keller

“We hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary.”—Hebrews 6:18–19 NLT

“God gives us hopes and dreams for certain things to happen in our lives, but He doesn’t always allow us to see the exact timing of His plan.”—Joyce Meyer

“Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel.”—H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”—Anne Lamott

“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”—Augustine of Hippo

“This is Christian hope, that the future is in God’s hands.”—Pope Francis

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”—Timothy Keller

“Hope is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the belief God is working through all things.”—Ann Voskamp

“Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.”—Charles Spurgeon

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”—Romans 15:4 NAU

“Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues.”—Brother Lawrence

“All human wisdom is summed up in these two words: wait and hope.”—Alexandre Dumas

“Don’t lose hope. When it gets darkest, the stars come out.”—Unknown

“Our Christian hope is that we are going to live with Christ in a new earth, where there is not only no more death, but where life is what it was always meant to be.”—Timothy Keller

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:2–5 ESV

“You can look forward with hope, because one day there will be no more separation, no more scars, and no more suffering in My Father’s House. It’s the home of your dreams!”—Anne Graham Lotz

“Jesus gives us hope because He keeps us company, has a vision and knows the way we should go.”—Max Lucado

“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”—Psalm 147:11 NIV

“The word hope I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.”—John Calvin

“The Resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus’ divine identity and his inspired teaching. It’s the proof of his triumph over sin and death. It’s the foreshadowing of the resurrection of his followers. It’s the basis of Christian hope. It’s the miracle of all miracles.”—Lee Strobel

“You and I are unavoidably and irreducibly hope-based creatures. We are controlled not how we live now, but what we think will happen later. Christian hope has to do with the ultimate future, not the immediate.”—Timothy Keller

“The great gift of Easter is hope—Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.”—Basil Hume

“Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death.”—John Newton

“Without Christ there is no hope.”—Charles Spurgeon

“Because of Jesus there is always hope, even in the darkest moments of your life.”—Timothy Keller

“Outside of the cross of Jesus Christ, there is no hope in this world. That cross and resurrection at the core of the Gospel is the only hope for humanity. Wherever you go, ask God for wisdom on how to get that Gospel in, even in the toughest situations of life.”—Ravi Zacharias

“Hope is not then something for the future alone, a sort of wishful thinking about what might be; it offers meaning for us today. Christian hope is founded on certain faith that life is not a meaningless riddle, but a mystery progressively revealed and finding the fulfillment in the redemption won by Jesus Christ and offered to all peoples.”—Raymond J. de Souza

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”—Colossians 1:27 ESV

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.”—J. I. Packer

“If you have been reduced to God being your only hope, you are in a good place.”—Jim Laffoon