When you think of the word hope, what comes to mind? A new day? A new job? A friend’s health? For many, hope is a wish in the wind and not much more. But what if it were more? What if it were so much more? Is your hope an opportunity for prayer, or a sign of faith?

Opportunity for Prayer

Do you ever catch yourself responding to a sick friend, “I hope you feel better soon”? I do. It’s a natural, yet inadequate response to a friend in need. Or perhaps you find yourself thinking, “I hope I have enough money to pay the electric bill,” or “I hope I get that job.” These are opportunities for prayer. Rather than wishing in the wind, pray. Your heavenly Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He cares for you and those you love.

Perhaps hope for you means the excitement a new day brings. A new day with all of its potential is an amazing gift that we are never promised. But our days are like a wisp, a vapor. Very shortly, that excitement, that potential is lost. That hope is fleeting. We are not asked to give a reason for the hope of a new day. But we are asked to give a reason for a different hope — a living hope.

Sign of Faith

What is a living hope? We have “an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for [us]” (1 Peter 1:4). Our living hope is because of the mercy of the Father, Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection that we who believe and trust in Him will live eternally with Him in heaven. God, Who cannot lie, promised the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2). Our faith and hope are in God, Who raised Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:21).

That is our living hope — that at the end of this life, with all of its suffering, because of God’s love and Christ’s death and resurrection, we will live eternally with Him in heaven — a splendid place with no crying, no suffering, no sadness (Rev. 21:4). We must be willing to give an account for such hope, because it is infinite, marvelous, abundant and free. Because God sent His son to die for all and loves all in the same way that He loves me and you. Because one day we will be reunited with loved ones, be with Christ and never shed a tear again.

Now that’s a reason for hope.