The Greek word for “hope” is elpis, meaning “a favorable and confident expectation.” It has to do with the unseen and the future. To say, “I hope to win the lottery,” is a favorable outcome but hardly confident. In contrast, the biblical writer Titus wrote that the believer has “the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago” (Titus 1:2). That is both favorable and confident!
Contemporary usage of hope is so often spoken with the meaning “I hope…I hope…I hope.” Hoping against hope, as it were. This is nothing more than wishful thinking.
Again, in contrast, the Bible uses hope as the “happy anticipation of good” as in 1 Peter 1:21 – “your faith and hope are in God.” Indeed, the apostle Paul writes, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). God is both the author and the subject of hope, thus biblical hope has a favorable and confident outcome.
Biblical hope is grounded in the very nature of God:
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:17-19, NIV).
How encouraging this is to Christian believers as we claim “…Christ in you, the hope of glory,” a very favorable and confident expectation! (Colossians 1:27).
