Impossible Hope

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. ~1 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)

Not too long ago, I asked my friend a question that had been on my mind. I asked if it is possible for God to have hope if He already knows the future? My friend gave me some good insight on this.

Hope is a tricky thing. In our culture, it means an uncertain desire for something in the future. Biblically however, hope is mentioned (especially in Paul's writings) quite frequently and interchangeably with faith. God is outside of time though, so can He hope like we do? One reason is that although God is both in and out of time (omnipresent), he does not decide the future for us but allows us to decide. Now, He does know what our choice will be, but as long as we are stuck in time, whenever He speaks to us, even through scripture, it is for our benefit. I would say that the same is true for hope. God hopes that all will be saved as it says in 2 Peter 3:9. In fact, it is His will that all should come to Him. That's why we can choose to submit to His will.

God hopes, in part, for our benefit, that we might understand His desire for us. John Piper describes biblical hope (as opposed to the normal worldly definition of hope) as "A confident expectation and desire for something good in the future." You can read the rest of his sermon here. The way my friend put it was that putting our hope in God doesn't mean we "hope God is real," but rather that we have faith that He is who He says He is.

Hope is the way we live our lives in the knowledge of the future we are promised in Christ.

Instead of saying that hope shouldn't be used in Christian terminology because we actually know God is real, we should talk about our hope every chance we get, explaining to people how this kind of hope is so different from the hope the world knows. Let our hope in the things unseen be a testimony to those who have no hope in the future.

“Hope is a verb with its shirtsleeves rolled up.” ~ David Orr