hope and promises 2

Hope. It's really all there is isn't it? Sure there are a lot of different words that play together here to help us form this part of our theology. Faith, trust, hope. Seems like we kind of use these words interchangeably in our Christianese. However, when we go into bi-lingual mode, each word seems to have a different spin.
Faith is a word that rarely gets used as a secular term. So, once heard enough times, and taken in context, it seems that it refers to the confidence that what you believe to be true is true. Trust is tossed around in all circles. This word seems to mean some kind of negative faith, to refer to the confidence that what you believe someone won't do, they won't do. We usually have faith in something and trust people not to behave inappropriately. Hope seems to be the weakest of the three. It appears to have less to do with confidence and more to do with desire. "I hope it doesn’t rain on Thursday." "I hope we have something good in the cafeteria today." We use the word hope when we seem to know that our desired outcome is based on chance. If we're lucky…

Entire cultures have been built and strengthened and maintained based on hope. Faith is strengthened when hope is exercised when there seems to be no hope. I think of African-Americans in slavery. An entire culture based on hope. What more was there to cling to? What stronger understanding of blind faith than to believe God's promises when there is no foreseeable way they could be accomplished? Even today while mainline evangelicals are listening to sermons about how to manage finances, live in peace, manage stress, the African-American church seems to be more focused on what God has promised for the future. Who could have a greater understanding of freedom in Christ? As a result, as a Christian community, they are less impacted by cultural trends, changing worship styles, and perceived needs.
Ironically, sometimes when hope is realized and faith bears fruit, trust is lost or taken for granted. I think of Israel in captivity in Egypt. All hope seems lost, but they cry out to God until He answers. They are delivered and their faith begins to dwindle. They worship idols in the wilderness, they gather extra manna, they believe the giants in the land are too much for them.

How does one keep his faith when all around there seems to be no evidence that it has any substance? How do we hope when there seems to be no chance? It seems that often, the psalmist retained faith when he felt all hope was lost. We can trust God's sovereignty. I trust God to take care of me, even when it's completely different than I'd anticipated. Job said, "though He slay me, I'll still trust Him.
The bible speaks of hope quite differently than we understand it. The apostle Paul's use of the word hope was not aleatory. We hope in what has been promised. Our hope goes far beyond what we can foresee. We hope based on what we think we can withstand. God promises based on what He can get us through, and what He has for us at the end of hoping.