Do you Hope with expectation?

 I have been re-reading the book of Romans in the Holy Bible. There is a word that occurs 14 times that God has brought to my attention.  The word is "hope."  When God, through His Holy Spirit brings a word to my attention, I research it.  Like all Bible scholars, and wannabes (me), I went to the Greek. The word used for hope, in the Greek, is "elpida, elpidi," et.al.  This word is also translated as expected or expectation. So I contemplated (picture me in an Alistair Cooke setting, LOL) the application of the word hope.  Hope can be anything from hoping for an A on a test, a Lamborghini, a kiss, a healing, a new job, etc. But hope, as the apostle Paul meant in his epistles, was that of expectation.  Not just the hope of a maybe, but the expectation of a promise to be fulfilled.  A hope that requires faith. Faith that says not just something to which we look forward, but a trust and belief that allows you to EXPECT that it will be fulfilled. 

Please don't mistake this for a "name it and claim it" false teaching.  Just because you want something and ask God for it does not mean that you will get it, or that you should hope and expect that you will. The hope that Paul and the other writers of the Bible explain is the hope that God, our Father, creator of the Universe, will keep all His promises that He has made to us. Not just a hope, but we can expect that He will.  It may seem like splitting hairs but I assure you that I am not. Does an expecting hope take faith? Yes. But it is that faith that allows you to expect with strength and courage.  

There are so many promises that God has given us and all are found in His Word, the Holy Bible.  Some of them have been fulfilled. Some we are still waiting to be fulfilled, but the greatest of these promises came in the form of Jesus Christ. Hope in him will never fail. Many other hopes do.  The real brain blaster about hope in Jesus Christ is that it is both completed and ongoing. And yet permanent. Wrap your minds around that! Better still, submit yourselves to His will, read His word, ask His Spirit for wisdom and understanding, and you can expect to be shown the truth. 

When God promises to do something, you can expect that it will be done.  Not just hope but realize and understand that it will be done. Have confidence that it will done.  That is the true difference between hope in a general sense and hope that is prescribed in the Bible. Place your hope, in the only one who has proven Himself to be absolutely faithful - Jesus Christ who is almighty God.

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