Hope and Trust
Faith is now; hope is always in the future. Hope is that expectancy that keeps our faith alive until what we’re believing for comes.
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hope is that part of faith that focuses on the future. When faith is directed to the future, you can call it hope. But faith can focus on the past and the present too, so faith is the larger term. Wherever there is full assurance of hope, there is faith. Faith is the full assurance of hope. Biblical faith is a confident expectation and desire for good things in the future. If hope is faith in the future tense, then we can see more clearly that hope, too, is a strong confidence and not just wishful thinking.
Romans 4:18 (ESV) ”In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
“Against hope” means that from the ordinary human standpoint there was no hope: Abraham was too old to have a child, and his wife was barren. But hope in God is never based on what is possible with man. Godly hope looks away from man to the promise of God. And when it does, it becomes the “full assurance of hope” — the expectation of great things from God. Thus Godly hope is to put our Trust in God.
Whenever faith in God looks to the future, it can be called hope. And whenever hope rests on the word of God, it can be called faith.
Romans 4:22 (ESV) “That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.”
Faith believes the truth of the Word, hope waits for the fulfilling of it. Faith sets hope on work, hope sets patience on work. Faith says to hope, look for what is promised; hope says to faith, So I do, and will wait for it too.
Our hope is therefore in God.
Romans 15:13 (ESV) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Psalm 39:7 (NKJV) “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.”
Faith is taking God at His word
Matthew 24:35 (NIV) “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
1 Peter 1:25 (NIV) “but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 (NIV) “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Faith does not try to obtain something from God. Faith in the heart is a title deed that you already have what the Word says!