Hope is what everyone needs. Hope is our assurance and confidence of our faith in God. There is a natural hope that we put in others who have proven to be a person of integrity; but, still, they can disappoint and fail us. God on the other hand will never disappoint or fail us. He is faithful and has proven His love and faithfulness to us by sending His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sins. God is the one who made it possible for us to exchange our sinful nature for a holy nature through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. All we have to do is believe it.

According to First Corinthians 13:13 hope is in strong association with faith and love. Revelation of God’s love for us produces faith in His Word and faith produces hope. Hope is an expectation of fulfillment of what our faith is believing for: whether it’s Salvation, healing, finances, or a restored relationship to mention a few. The more we learn about God’s love and power (hearing and hearing the Word) the stronger our faith can be to produce the expectation of what we are hoping for. (Romans 10:17)

It is my experience in dealing with hope is that there are at least a couple of things we must guard ourselves against: one is giving an evil report, and the other is a lack of preparedness. An evil report is saying anything that is contrary to the Word of God. A lack of preparedness in knowledge of the Word of God is one reason we say things that are contrary to the Word of God. Basically, a report can be described as a detailed account or statement, and can either be a bad or good.

Remember, the Israelites spent forty years for their belief in an evil report. We often think of them for their lack of faith in the good report, but the flip side is if a person can have faith in a good report, then they can also have faith in a bad report. An evil, negative, or bad report produces doubt and fear which results in stealing our faith; whereas, a good, positive, report produces confidence and faith. The Israelites believed the details of the bad report of the ten spies and the end result was they died in the desert. (Numbers 14:37) Only Joshua and Caleb gave a good report and were allowed to enter into the Promise Land, even though they had to wait the forty years! Joshua and Caleb didn’t deny that there were giants in the land, they just chose to believe God’s Word that they were well able to obey as God instructed. An evil report produces sorrow and steals our joy. A good report will produce a joy and in turn works like a medicine to heal us. (Proverbs 17:22) The Israelites had a choice to believe God and so do we. The details of our report, or our words, determine our future. The message of hope is that we can change our future with our faith in God and the words we speak.

We must prepare ourselves to be ready to give sickness the reason we believe in healing and that we are healed. Psalm 107:20 informs us that God, “sent his word, and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.” Sickness is a destructive force.  One of my favorite verses against sickness or a hurt is Jeremiah 30:17 where God says, “for I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”  That covers everything. Another reason is that by the stripes of Jesus we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24) I chose to believe God’s Word.

Another area I prepare myself to answer is in the area of finances. Long ago when I first learned about tithing in Malachi 3:10-11, and the promise that God would open the windows of heaven to pour out a blessing to me, I decided then and there I would always tithe to my church. Not only do I receive a blessing for tithing, but my church is blessed too because they can then be a blessing to the community. God also says he will rebuke the devourer! Now that’s a good blessing. The devourer is the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy (the devil); but Jesus came to give us abundant life. (John 10:10)

Also, along with knowing the Word of God to be prepared, we need to learn how to answer questions. Some questions to think about how to answer are: why you believe in Jesus, why you believe in healing, why do you tithe and give offerings. You might be thinking of a question or two yourself. Learning the deep reasons of why you believe, and learning some scriptures that back up your beliefs will help you to be prepared to answer questions of the hope you have, the joy you have, the patience and peace you have. All of these attributes come from knowing God and His Word and believing them.

Chose to believe in the hope that God offers in His Word through the Salvation in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, the healing that’s available because of the stripes on His back, the peace of mind because He wore the crown of thorns, and the financial blessings when we tithe.

This is the message of hope: that God is faithful to fulfill His commandments and promises to us when we believe Him.