HOPE is God’s Middle Name

HOPE is God’s Middle Name. 

“He says in his poem that the three virtues of faith, hope and love are like three sisters: two of them are grown and the one in the middle is a small child. They go forward together hand in hand, with the child hope in the middle. Looking at them, it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child, but it is the other way round; it is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. It is hope that pulls forth faith and love. Without hope everything would stop. Nothing can be done without hope.”  (from Rev. Cantalamessa’s book Life in Christ, referring to Peguy’s poem ‘The Portal of the Mystery of Hope”).

Hope Defined. The biblical words for hope point to being able to anticipate the future with pleasure, to welcome whatever comes next, to have confident expectations of good in one’s life. Hope is faith in the future and a deep assurance of God’s hand in whatever is coming around the corner now and forever. The Hebrew words in Scripture for hope, “Tikvah” and “Yachal,” are often synonymous with “wait,” and Tikvah can also mean a connecting cord that secures one thing to another. Its root word is “qavah” which means to wait, literally to weave together the strings to make an unbreakable cord. So in Scripture we find that occasionally the words hope and wait are somewhat interchangeable, and hope can be taken to mean “a lifeline that is anchored in the reliability of God.” The Greek word in the New Testament is “elpis,” and means much the same thing, especially as it pertains to an eager expectation and an intense yearning for something. As has been said by many, hope is faith in the future tense; hope is when faith draws the future into the present; hope is when the present is touched by a future reality.

“Hope moves the heart of God to come to our help with His grace.” (Father R. Cantalamessa).

Hope Described. Various descriptions of hope might include: Hope is confidently expecting a positive outcome, as opposed to despair, which is fearfully expecting a negative outcome; hope is trusting God for one’s future, as opposed to doubt, which is distrustful of God for one’s future; hope is an optimistic assurance based on reality, as opposed to wishful thinking, which is based on uncertainty; hope is a patient waiting that keeps one actively moving forward, as opposed to a frustrating resignation which passively keeps one stuck; hope is the strong inner urge to work through a difficulty and do what one can to solve it, as opposed to the inclination to avoid a difficulty and thus not solve anything; hope is the positive conviction that there is something substantial to look forward to, as opposed to one’s pessimistic belief that the future holds nothing but a bleak emptiness; hope is the anticipation of a triumphant future in the long run, as opposed to someone who doesn’t even believe in the possibility of a long run of any kind. As the ancient Church Father put it, “Hope is the loving movement of one’s spirit towards that which it hopes for.” (St. Didacus). So hope is not only a deep assurance and steadfast conviction, but also includes the object of the hope itself, the hope in the flesh, Jesus Christ, “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

“I will put my hope in Your good Name.” (Psalm 52:9).

THE GOD OF HOPE. Sometimes there are cases when someone is so closely identified with a character quality that it’s as if that characteristic has become that person’s name. There are times when someone is so full of a virtue that one can easily refer to that person by that virtue, as if that person is named by it… God’s name of Love, for example. When someone perfectly embodies a quality, that person becomes that quality. God Himself is the supreme version of this type of naming…. God is completely full of hope, He is the only reliable source of hope, His reputation is defined by hope, and He continues to remain the only indisputable reason for hope. So God Himself, and only Him, can accurately claim the name of Hope. Hope has a name, and it is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

(1.) Lord Yahweh is the God of Hope. The Lord God rightly claims the name of hope because of the consistent demonstration of His steadfast love in the past. He has proven Himself to be trustworthy, and His creative power has been revealed for all to see. God has been faithful to His promises, and so His word can be a source of hope for the future. Yahweh is the God of hope during the realities of the present as well, as He delights in being our refuge and hiding place, our fortress and stronghold, our shelter and dwelling place, our strength and the rock of our daily deliverance. The Psalms have countless meditations on hope in Yahweh:

1. “Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul shall wait for the Lord; He is our helper and protector; our heart shall be glad in Him, and we hope in His holy name. Let your mercy, O Yahweh, be upon us as we hope in You.” (Psalm 33:18-22).
2. “God delights in those who hope in His mercy and lovingkindness.” (Psalm 147:11).
3. “In You, O Lord Yahweh, I have hoped. For you will hear me and answer me, O Master, my God.”  (Psalm 38:15).
4. “I will praise You forever for what You have done, and I will put my hope in Your name; for this is what is good in the presence of Your faithful.”  (Psalm 52:9).
5. “My only hope is to hope in You alone!” (Psalm 39:7).
6. “Hope in God! I will acclaim Him for His rescuing presence!” (Psalm 42:5).
7. “My soul in silence waits for God, for my hope is in Him. Only He is my rock and my deliverance, my fortress – I shall not be shaken. On God depends my rescue and my glory. He is the God of my help, and my hope is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people! Pour out your hearts before Him.” (Psalm 62:5-8).
8. “You alone are my hope, Master, God. I have trusted in You from my youth. While yet unborn, I depended on You; in the womb of my mother You sustained me. My praise shall be continually of You… As for me, my hope will never fade, and I will keep adding to your praise.” (Psalm 71:5, 6, 14).

(2.) Lord Jesus is the God of Hope. It’s ironic that the word hope is only mentioned once in all the Gospels, and that’s only when Matthew is quoting Isaiah 42 (Matthew 12:21). Jesus talks freely and often about faith and love, but never about hope! Perhaps that’s because our Christian hope is based on His resurrection, and it was only after Jesus rose from the dead that discussions of hope exploded in the early Jesus movement. Jesus proved He was Hope incarnate, not by preaching about hope, but by rising from the dead and paving the way to eternal life. The Epistles are overflowing with words on hope, because Jesus, who is both the source of hope and the goal of our hope, finally fulfilled what all those psalms in the Hebrew Bible were living into… the eternal hope of life in God. The foundation of our hope is Christ’s defeat of death itself. St. Paul clearly proclaimed that if Christ had not been raised form the dead, then our faith, and we could add hope, is empty, futile, and “in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). As Paul explained to his Corinthian church, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied!” (15:19). Thank God, though, it turns out that hope has a name, and the name is Jesus.

1. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people… waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13).
2. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, according to His boundless, extravagant mercy, we are reborn into an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!” (1 Peter 1:3).
3. “This letter is by Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” (1 Timothy 1:1).
4. ”May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ.”   (Ephesians 1:17-20).
5. “We are God’s house as long as we keep our courage and hold firm to the end our joyful and exultant confidence and sense of triumph in our hope in Christ.” (Hebrews 3:6).
6. “Even though it has only recently become public knowledge, God always knew, even before the foundation of the world, He was going to do this for you. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. It’s because of this sacrificial Messiah, who God raised from the dead and glorified, that your trusting faithfulness and your hope are centered in God.” (1 Peter 1:20-21).
7. “We have been saved by hope. Yes, our salvation is by this hope, groaning inwardly as we await the redemption of our bodies. But hope that is seen is not really hope, for who hopes for what he sees? Who hopes for what he already has? But hoping for what we do not see means eagerly waiting for it with confident, patient endurance.” (refer to Romans 8:19-25).
8. “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” (Hebrews 6:18-19). 
9. “Gird the loins of your understanding; be mentally alert, sober-minded, self-controlled, focused. Fix your hope completely on God’s grace, His divine favor to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  (1 Peter 1:13).
10. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your trusting faithfulness in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the fellow believers, your faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.” (Colossians 1:3-5, NIV).
11. “Dear friends, that’s exactly who we are right now: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we will end up! It is not yet apparent what we will become when Christ appears. What we do know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we will see Him. And in seeing Him, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He truly is. All of us who focus our hope on Him, who have this eager expectation… All of us who look forward to His coming should stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. We need to keep ourselves pure, just as He is pure.”  (1 John 3:2-3, a weaving of many different Bible translations).

(3.) The Holy Spirit is the God of Hope. The Spirit is “the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,” so we can safely trust in the Holy Spirit as the God of hope, just like the Father and the Son.  God’s Spirit of holiness is the divine Presence in the universe, the dynamic power and energy of God offered to every human being on earth. The Spirit is an invisible creative force with divine intelligence who truly knows the mind of God from the inside, and so contains all the knowledge that the Father and the Son enjoy. The Spirit of God knows, truly knows, therefore, that humanity cannot function without hope. God’s Holy Spirit is the Lord’s change agent in each of us and the Church, and intends to accompany us, turning what was once a hopeless life into a life that is hopeful, taking us from one level of glory to another. Since the Spirit is God’s delivery system of grace into our hearts, He yearns to infuse hope as a fixture into our spirits. It is because of the Holy Spirit that we can proclaim, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20).

“For it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, who works in us because we trust and are faithful, that we confidently expect our hope of attaining righteousness to be fulfilled.” (Galatians 5:5).

“We are called to be an honor to God’s glory because we were the first to hope in Christ. You too heard the word of truth in Christ, which is the good news of your salvation. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because you believed in Christ. The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!” (Ephesians 1:12-14).

1st Ancient Prayer to the Spirit of Hope: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful. You, who have already come to make them believers, come now to make them blessed. You who came so that with Your help we might glory in the hope of the glory of the sons and daughters of God, come anew so that we might also glory in the possession of that glory. For Yours it is to strengthen and make firm, to perfect and to bring to fulfillment. The Father created us, the Son has redeemed us; Accomplish now what it belongs to You to do. Come and lead us into the fullness of truth, the enjoyment of the supreme Good, the vision of the Father, the abundance of all delights, the joy of all joys. Amen.” (medieval, Walter of St. Victor).

“What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory! But that’s not all… Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that suffering will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy that will come back to shame us, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (Romans 5:2-5).

“Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you completely with joy and peace as you continue trusting in Him, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may have overflowing hope, a hope that bubbles over!” (Romans 15:13).

2nd Ancient Prayer to the Spirit of Hope: “Holy Spirit, my Lord and God, let Your saving plan be fulfilled in us all. You drew God down from heaven and into the Virgin’s womb; You are the love that moved God to become one with our own flesh. You built for God’s Son a home in His mother; Built it on seven pillars, Your seven gifts. From the root of Jesse a shoot has sprung: On it You would one day come to rest. God, we have heard with our very own ears; Our fathers have told us the work that You did when you came in flame-tongues from Your throne in the Godhead to make earth a heaven. From that moment on, as children adopted, scattered throughout all the earth, through You we keep crying, Abba, our Father! to God. How great are Your mercies, oh Spirit, oh Lord! They revive me in hope; Through them I entreat You. Faith’s seal, of believers the counselor-helper, Light, Fire and Wellspring of light, Oh, listen to us who call You, and come! If You will but guide us, our Father’s face we will see, and also the face of His Son, and know You too, who flow from them both, Life’s fountain and river of peace.” (medieval, Rupert of Deutz).

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.” (Romans 8:23).

“Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago by prophets who were carried away by the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live. The Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit, breathed out by God, so that we can live in hope, giving us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. ” (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).

3rd Ancient Prayer to the Spirit of Hope: “Come, true light. Come, eternal life. Come, mystery concealed. Come, treasure unnamed. Come, reality outreaching all telling. Come, of You whom our minds cannot grasp. Come, everlasting joy. Come, light that causes no shadow. Come, hope of all the redeemed. Come, You who raise the dead. Come, You only, to the lonely. Come, my breath and my life. Come, my soul’s consoler. Come, my joy, my glory, my everlasting delight. Shining vesture, searing to demon touch. Cleansing bath, bathe me in purest tears most holy. Stay with me, oh Sovereign, alone do never leave me: For so, when those enemies of mine shall come who always seek to devour my soul, it is You they will see, dwelling in me, and at once they will flee, able to do nothing to me, finding You, most powerful of all, enthroned within the poor home of my soul.” (Simeon the New Theologian, Eastern Orthodox Church, 1000 A.D.).