Fear or Hope? The Most Important Choice You Make Every DaySample

When all I could see were problems, somebody asked me, "Scott, where's the hope?" This question was difficult to answer, as I struggled with how I viewed hope.

The hard part about hope was that when I heard that word, I thought of something puny and weak. In that season, God began to teach me and show me that my view of hope was not accurate. I began to see all of the ways I incorrectly defined hope.

During that time, I built a list of ten things that hope is not.

First, hope is not naive. So, if you hear the word hope and think I don't live in reality, take a deep breath; hope is not naive.

Second, hope is not denial. If God wanted His people to live in denial, He would not have sent them to spy out the Promised Land.

Third, hope is not passive. The people in Numbers 13 would not take the Promised Land while sitting comfortably with cold drinks.

Fourth, hope is not avoidance. Avoidance doesn't improve anything, including the noise your car may be making.

Fifth, hope is not an easy path. When you read the story of people like Noah, Joseph, Moses, David, and Jeremiah, you see God doesn't call His people to easy things.

Sixth, hope is not comfortable. If you hold onto the truth about what you're facing in one hand while holding on to hope in the other, you will be far from comfortable.

Seventh, hope is not cheap. If you're going to hold on to hope amid a crisis, it's going to cost you something. Sometimes, what it's going to cost you is the view that other people have of you.

Eighth, hope is not an emotion or a feeling. Hope isn't something we do or hold to when we feel like it. It's much bigger than that.

Ninth, hope is not weakness. People who can hold on to hope in the face of dire circumstances, which causes them to feel anything but hope, aren't weak; they are powerful.

Tenth, hope is not insignificant, as seen in this story from Numbers 13.

So, if hope is not those things, what is hope? I have a favorite definition. Hope is a strong and confident expectation for something good that God will bring about in the future. According to the Bible, hope is far more than wish.

Hope focuses on the future, rooted in who God is. Because of what we expect God to do, our hope gives us a strong and confident expectation. Therefore, if you think that hope means you have to deny what's happening around you and pretend it's not real, that is not hope because hope doesn't deny reality! As we'll see in the story, hope invites us to defy reality. "Yes, all of those things which make you afraid are true. All of those things are real and happening. But God will bring something good in the face of it all."

If you respond with courageous hope in the middle of your circumstances today, you will have to defy reality and trust God's power to bring good from what seems far from good.

The trip the spies embarked on would require great hope. As we'll see in the next reading, what they discovered in the Promised Land tempted them to become very afraid.