Hope is one of three chief virtues, together with faith and love. As with all virtues, courage, humility, perseverance, and all the others, we are required cultivate them. Even though God gives faith, hope, and love, they do not simply appear fully formed in us. Sometimes we wish for virtue to come in this no-effort-required way, but they do not. We rightfully pray for faith, hope, and love, but should not conclude therefore that there is nothing we must do in receiving and developing what God gives.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:5
Notice how Paul describes what is happening as he discusses hope and love. Our hope is rooted in and strengthened by the love of God which is being pouring into us, itself coming through the Holy Spirit. Without doubt the work is God’s, but remember how Paul cautions is against quenching the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We may either welcome or reject the Spirit who brings love, and through love, hope. Our hope is dependent on knowing the love of God, and knowing love through the presence and work of the Spirit. We may either extinguish or fan the Spirit’s fire. We have our work to do as well.
Paul’s statement about these two virtues spells out God’s work, but implies ours in concert with his. To welcome the Spirit involves remaining mindful of the love of God, what the Spirit is bringing. If I do not pay close attention to God’s love, keep his love in my thoughts, both by the practice of showing this love to others and remembering to be thankful for it myself, how will hope remain strong?
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:5
Our hope is God himself, which means that we hope steadfastly in the love who God is. To do our part in the growth of the virtue of hope requires us to focus on God’s love. We will not be filled with strong hope if we think constantly about what makes us afraid, filling our minds with dreaded scenarios and frightening thoughts. We can forget to be mindful of love and instead let our thinking gravitate to all our fears, real or imagined. Unfortunately, there are so many promoting fear and worry under the guise of being well-informed. However, I don’t find hope by listening to all that I am being told is wrong in the world and by trying to figure out how things can work out, but by remembering who loves me. Cultivating hope means turning our minds from the shrieks of fear and panic to be reassured in the presence of everlasting and world-building love. The hope that we find in this connection imagines delivery from slavery, the fall of the kingdom of darkness, and the vanquishing of evil and death itself. These are not mere wishful dreams, but what will without doubt be because this same love emptied the tomb of one who embraced it.
We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us . . . Hebrews 6:18-20
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