Welcome to the cultivating growth podcast where each week we discuss different ways in which we can grow as followers of Christ. This week, we'll be discussing the topic of hope. What is biblical hope? How does it effort from the world's view of hope and in what ways should we be growing in hope. We'll tackle all of those questions and more this weak.

We're excited to share this conversation with everyone today. So with that, let's get to it.  Well, hello, John. It's good to be with you once again as we kind of continue our journey on cultivating growth, thinking about our spirituality, our relationship with God, and growing and all of that, in essence, growing closer to him. The last couple of weeks, we've talked about faith and love and hope.

A lot of times these 3 are I was gonna say couple together, but that It's 3 things, but a lot of times they're grouped together. Faith, hope, and love, and that's really why we wanted to start. And you said something in your intro that I thought was interesting, staying, and I thought it'd be a good place for us to to begin. Not as much about faith, but certainly in love. And we talked about that where, you know, our everyday vernacular use of the word love isn't exactly the way the Bible will indicate what love is all about.

But when it comes to hope, that most certainly is the case. That the everyday vernacular, the way that we use hope, a word we use all the time. Mhmm. But the way that we commonly use it in our culture, it isn't the way that God uses it in scripture. Yeah.

You know, 1 of the the first passages that came to mind when I was thinking about that very concept is in first Peter chapter 1. As Peter kind of introducing this letter that he is writing. He says, blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And and just that phrase, a living hope, really caught my attention because hope is not something that is alive or dead in my mind. But Peter looks at it and says, no.

It's very much living in God. It is real. It is tangible. It it is powerful. And I think that's where some of the differentiation between the way the world views hope and the way a Christian views hope begins.

We think of hope as as may or may not happen. I kinda hope it does. I'm wishing it does. It's like you rub the lamp and you get your your wishes from the genie and, you know, you kinda hope they come true. Well, that that's not the idea of biblical hope at all.

Biblical hope is rooted in an expectation,  something that we are looking forward to, something that is alive and vibrant and living. That's the idea of biblical hope. And so as Christians, when when we think about the hope that we have, it's not a wish when I blow out my birthday candles. It's an expectation I have of god fulfilling the promises that he has made to me, and I hope I look forward to the time in which I get to enjoy those. Yeah.

I mean, the word that you use there expectation our confidence. To me, that's the biggest key when it comes to, you know, the way that we use it in our everyday culture and the way that we we read about it biblically. Because you're exactly right. The way that we use it today when we're when we say we hope for something, I I hope the sun is shining today. I hope it doesn't rain or, you know you know, those kinds of things.

You know, a lot of times when we use it that way, And we have kind of that wish element in our mind. Generally speaking, our expectations  are very low. That's why we're kind of throwing it out there. But yet when we go in scripture and the word hope comes up, which certainly it does multiple times. I I my Bible's open to Hebrews chapter 6 where it'll paint the picture of the Hebrew writer.

I mean, it talks about our hope as an anchor for the soul. Right? I mean, so now it's at the root of our relationship in a lot of ways. But yet that passage talks about it not in a low expectation kind of way, but biblically, hope is very high expectation is absolute confidence. And what I really like about Hebrews, that passage there in Hebrews chapter 6, and we don't have the time to dive into the whole thing.

But the point that the writer is making right there is that you can have that high confidence, that high expectation of hope. He uses the idea of sure and steadfast even  because that is being rooted or grounded in God and who he is. The fact that he makes oaths about based on the promises that he has made, and the Hebrew writer says it's just impossible for him to lie. And so he can be trusted in all things. And so when we are taking God at his word,  whatever that may be in a general sense, If you are 1 of his followers and you stand with him completely to the end of your life, a home in heaven will be yours.

Well, now you've you can establish a hope in that promise, and that now comes with high expectation, a high confidence. Yeah. I love you know, there's several passages in Romans that talk about this idea of hope. In in Romans chapter 8, Paul will talk about us waiting eagerly for it. And so to your point, there is an expectation  that we have when we have hope in God.

In Romans 15, he'll describe God as the God of hope, which I I love. He is the author of the hope that we have. And when you start to think about the contrast between worldly hope and godly hope, you you really go down to, well, who authors each of these? God, the 1 that we can trust in, the 1 that we can have confidence in, the 1 that our faith is built upon, or the world that is destined to crumble beneath our feet and to let us down and to disappoint us at every turn. Well, now we can start to see how the hope that we have differentiates when we think about the author of our hope.

God is the author of our hope, therefore, our hope is sure. If the world is the author of our hope, then that's where we get this wishy washy unsure, I don't know whether or not it'll happen. Well, of course, because the world is unsure. The world is unsteady. God is the exact opposite of that.

And so if he is the author of our hope, our hope can be firm and confident in him because he is the god of hope as Paul says. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about what it is and really how important it is. Let's talk for a few minutes about how we can actually grow in it. You know, sometimes when we think about, you know, the idea of growing in faith, you know, there are some, you know, points that we can get to very easily on how to do that or growing in love.

Again, there are some points that we can get to very easily on how to do that. But sometimes we think about this concept of hope, and We think, well, how do I grow in that? It it there's a temptation to think, well, that's kind of 1 of those abstracty kind of things. You there's not really a a real concrete ways to grow in that. But just like faith and just like love, there are absolutely some concrete ways that you can grow in your hope.

1 of them you made mention of there in Romans chapter 8 is what really, you know, kinda kinda Kinda stuck out to me when it talks about our hope as eagerness,  but yet with perseverance.  And this idea of waiting on God, trusting that he is working is absolutely 1 way that we can grow in our hope. Yeah. I I love the idea of practicing waiting. Yep.

And that's that's not something that really seems super enticing to us because we go out of our way as a society to not wait. We we don't like to wait. We don't like to wait in line. We don't like to wait for anything. If Amazon can deliver it to me in 2 days, I'm not happy.

Yep. Right? Because I don't like to wait. But the idea of practicing waiting when it comes to our relationship with God is a form of strengthening our hope. Because each day that passes,  I wait on God.

I wait patiently  for the time in which he's gonna bring the world to an end and Christ is going to return or that I take my last breath on this earth, whichever comes first. I wait on that day, patiently waiting. And in doing so, I strengthen my hope in him because I am anticipating  what's going to come after whichever of those 2 events comes first. And so that idea of just practicing waiting on God and being patient with him as he does things in his time is how we build our hope. And and so we we can pray about that.

We can talk to God about that. Certainly spending time in his word and reading about that is important, talking to 1 another about that. But practicing waiting is a form of strengthening hope that all of us need to take part in. Yeah. It's giving yourself fully to him.

Right? And so you're you're building humility, you're building dependence. I mean, you're do you're building trust. I mean, you're doing all of those things as we're waiting on God. And then in the midst of building all of those things, we're building our hope.

Our hope is growing. Our hope is being strengthened. There's 1 other 1 that I had Kind of the stuck out in my mind, and we talked about it a moment ago. But, you know, there's another way that really you can grow in your hope is if you grow in your confidence in God. Right?

You you are able to strengthen your confidence in God. And there's really several different ways that you can do that. Number 1, you can certainly think about your own life and and see what god has done for you in your life to help build your confidence in him. But you you've also made mention. I mean, learning about God and who he is, the promises that he has made, that he has kept all of them, the things that he says he has always done, and meditating upon that builds the confidence that what God says is going to happen.

And when my confidence grows, my hope grows. My expectation  grows. My confidence this growing and ultimately your hope is being strengthened. You know, you just made me think of a podcast that I was listening to recently,  and the guest on this podcast was a, quote, unquote, longevity expert.  And he had devoted a great deal of resources and time to trying to figure out how to essentially reverse aging.

He thought he could never die. Right? That's the goal. Don't die. He literally wore a t shirt that said don't die on it.

And as I listened to this guy talk,  what came across to me  is that there is a man who is afraid of dying. He is afraid because he doesn't have any hope of what comes next. And so because of that, he is compelled to invest every second of every day and every bit of the resources that he has  into preventing  death because he is afraid of what happens. His only hope lies in staying alive.  And and as a Christian, obviously, the exact opposite is true.

Now I'm all for living well as long as God gives us life and being vibrant and and active and all of those things. I think those are all wonderful things, and I'm very passionate about those things. But those can never super seed the hope that I have and what awaits me. And if it does, then what's going to happen is I'm going to get consumed by my life on this earth. And that's what I was hearing when I was listening to this guy speak, was a man who was consumed by life on this earth because he had no hope.

I think even sometimes as Christians, we we can fall victim to that. We can see people who are scared of death. We can see people who are so tied to this life in this world  that they will do whatever it takes  whatever it takes to just take 1 more breath.  And as a Christian, our hope should be so strong and so vibrant  that we live well as long as God gives us life, but we wait for the time in which he fulfills his promise to us to take us to a home in heaven. And I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that that is going to be so much better than the life that I have here on earth, and that's where my hope is founded.

And so it's almost it's it's sad when you come across people who don't have that hope because you see the futility of hope placed in this physical realm. Because as hard as this guy tries not to die, he's gonna die 1 day.  Nobody gets out of this alive. That's that has been throughout history the truth, and it's gonna happen. And so to see someone whose hope is placed in that is so sad and they are setting themselves up for such a great disappointment.

Yeah. And you think about, you know, you think about Jesus and his sacrifice who defeated death for us, But hope takes the fear of death away. That's right. And and it is something to be worked on. It is something to be practiced.

It is something to grow. And so as we close, let's close with a passage here. And I think it'll be encouraging for all of us as we kind of endeavor on this a journey together in in cultivating our growth specifically on hope. And so let's close with this. Hebrews chapter 6 verses 17 through 19.

Thus, god determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath. That by 2 immutable things in which it is impossible for god to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast  and which enters the presence behind the veil.  Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, So we'd appreciate it if you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're listening and rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus as widely and effectively as possible.

Thanks again for joining us this week, and we'll talk to you again next week. 

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