It is always very sad to see people who have no hope or meaningful expectations for their life. It is a life of simple despair that leads people to misery, gloom and dark depression. People who have no hope quickly lose heart. They see no light at the end of the tunnel and just want to give up on their life. Unfortunately, one of the worst things someone can do is place their hope in something or someone that cannot help them. People place their hope in things such as the government, money, jobs, financial security, promotions or even friends, but none of those things are able to provide meaningful or permanent hope for a person’s life. However, biblical hope is grounded in a divine person and the work He accomplished for the believer. 1 Peter 1:3 says that it is a “living hope,” which simply means it is alive, active and enduring, instead of dead, inactive and fleeting. If an individual places their hope in anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ, they are destined for utter disappointment of indescribable proportions.

What does the biblical word ‘hope’ really mean?

Worldly hope is related to a person’s expectation and anticipation of what they want to happen, but biblical hope is anticipating with great confidence. Why is that? It is because the believer knows God will never change. It is the unchanging nature of God, His Word and His work of salvation, and the indescribable future that He has guaranteed to us that gives confidence and hope. The creator God has the power to guarantee that His promises will come to pass. It is critical to understand that hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is the greatest of all of God’s mighty acts. It is the one event upon which all of the believer’s hope rests. 1 Corinthians 15:19 says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The key phrase is, “in this life only,” because the believer’s hope is not based on what may or may not happen to them in this life, but on what God has planned for them once they enter eternally into His kingdom. 1 Corinthians 2:9 declares, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.’”

What God has prepared for those who love Him cannot even be imagined — and that is where the believer’s hope truly lies. It is not in the present life (which is not even noticeable on eternity’s timeline), but on that future life in heaven with Christ, which will last forever.

So, how can someone obtain this hope?

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:12 that those who do not have Christ have “no hope and are without God in the world.”  They may have many things and even seem happy and satisfied in the present, but that will soon pass and they will find themselves eternally separated from God, without any hope for their future.  Their only hope is in what this fallen world can give to them. At best, it is short-lived and ultimately does not deliver what it promises. The Bible says that “the world is passing away” (1 John 2:17), “but the Word of the Lord abides forever” (1 Peter 1:25). The world has no power to give someone what only God can give them: eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. The New Testament never presents hope as something that is based on earthly things, but as something that is securely anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His second coming. That is where your hope eternally resides. As 1 Peter 1:13 says, you are to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  When you do, God the Father will give you the grace and the power to rise above all that may afflict you so that you can have great joy and confidence.