• What is hope? Hope is a gift. In Jer 29:11 God says that he has plans “to give you a future and a hope.” Hope is strength to cling to the gospel no matter what. Hope is to know and experience God’s love, in this moment, and for eternity.
• “Faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Heb 11:1). Hope comes first, and faith brings to reality what we hope for. Thus hope precedes change. Some want to see change in order to get hope, but hope empowers change. Instead of; ‘transformation brings hope’, I’m thinking; ‘hope brings transformation’. Where there is little hope, there is not much going on that brings about change. When hope is stirred, change is just around the corner.
• “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov 13:12). John in Rev 2:7 says “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” To be victorious is to stay hopeful. The tree of hope is eternal life (paradise), and a hope not deferred will take us there.