Struggling to find Hope

Several weeks ago I really started to wonder how someone was supposed to find hope. Ya know, doesn't it seem like such a cliche?

Hope...

Well I set out to really try and get my arms around the meaning of hope. I started by looking up as many verses as I could find. Maybe that would help me understand.

I Cor 13:7 "Love always hopes"

Job 13:15 "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him."

Psalm 25:3 "No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame."

Psalm 33:18-22 "But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them from famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

Psalm 42:5 "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."

Lamentations 3:19-25 "I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him."

So...I listed verse after verse, many more than the ones I put here. Then I thought about it and prayed about it and still didn't get it! Help me Lord!

Finally, I resorted to the dictionary. This is where things began to come into focus for me.

Hope: 1) feeling that something desired is possible 2) confidence, full trust or assurance

AHHHH..... I think I'm starting to get it. Hope means two different things!

Okay, so I remember my pastor, Hal, preaching one time on the difference between faith and hope. We can have faith that God will do what He has promised. He tells us so many things in His word that we can count on with 100% certainty. We can expect them!!

However, we can only hope for other things. We can hope for things that He might give us, things that are good, but they are not things that we are guaranteed to receive from Him. In my case, I think often about the gift of a husband. Can I have faith and believe with 100% certainty that God will give me what I desire in that particular instance? NO! He has not promised a spouse to me in His word. He has promised to give me good things and to do what is best for me. He is the only one who gets to define what that looks like.

I can hope in something like a husband if it is in alignment with His word and His character. Is it consistent with gifts that He says are good? Would it be like God to bless me with that desire? Yes! So therefore, I can hope for it!

Now what Webster helped me to understand is that there are two different types of hope.
1) Hope FOR something and 2) Hope IN Someone...in God

Hoping FOR something: Feeling that something desired is a possible reality

Hope IN someone: complete confidence and trust IN Him

So then I went back to all of those verses that I originally looked up and tried to decide which type of hope applied to each. I can HOPE for good things from His hand. I can hope for certain circumstances and the things that my heart longs for secretly. But, my hope cannot ever be IN those things! My hope needs to be in my Savior alone, not His gifts or blessings that come from His hand. Hope that gives makes me have complete trust that He is what He says He is and He will do what is good and right is hope IN Him. His definition of what is good needs to become my definition. I will pray that my desires will be conformed to His so that whatever He gives me in this short life will be the desires of my heart...because my heart is aligned with Him and the things His heart wants.

I'm hoping for some things. You can hope with me. But SO much more importantly, let's put our hope IN Him. Let's focus on His face instead of His hand and what we hope comes from it.