What do we understand by hope? We all know that word and use it often. We live by hope more or less.

We have all heard the expression, "As long as there is life, there is hope." We have read on old houses, boats or factories: "In hope of a blessing;" or "The good hope;" or, "Without hope, no one fares well." When in case of sick­ness the doctor says, "There is no hope," it means that the patient must die.

Due to sin we are all subject more or less to troubles, cares and distresses. Many live in deep need, anxiety, and fear. In this life we must experience so very many disappointments. It is so true in the life of man that the strength of our days is labor and sorrow. Every day we hope it will become better. So many people live in the hope that life will become better. And many also die thus without any change or improve­ment having come.

Also in relation to eternity many people have hope. I once heard an old woman say on her deathbed, "I have always gone to church faithfully; I have given much to the church; I have always lived properly; and have often asked for grace. Now I hope for the best.''

Is this the Christian hope? What stability does it offer? We may emphat­ically say, "No, that is not the hope of which the Bible speaks."

The hope of which I have spoken is a worldly hope. It is nothing but uncertainty. It is a waiting and watching whether it comes, whether there will be an improvement. It is a wavering and doubting. This hope is superficial. It is actually not a hope. God's Word tells us that the natural man is without God in the world, without Christ and without hope.

The Christian hope is something quite different. I will mention a few texts which show us the nature and essence of the Christian hope:

Hebrews 6:19 – "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast."

1 Peter 1:13 – "Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Romans 8:25 – "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

Acts 24:15 – "And have hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection of the dead.''

What is the Christian hope? Hope is faith in the future. We do not have it as yet, but we shall certainly receive it. Hope is a sure expectation. It is not a waiting to see whether it shall come, but a certainty that it shall come.

I wait for God to hide me,
My soul, with longing stirred,
Shall hope, what e'er betide me,
In His unfailing Word. Psalm 130

The precious unchangeable Word of God is the ground on which hope can rest as the anchor of the soul. And therefore the Christian hope is not something uncertain. As firm as God's promises are, so firm is the fulfilling of the Christian hope.

Many people live in a lifelong uncertainty; for them, hope means "maybe.'' Others say they have a little hope, but it is not certain.

The Christian hope is wrought in regeneration by the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner together with faith and love. Those are the three inseparable companions in the life of God's children. Where faith is there is also love, and there is also hope. Faith in God, love to God and hope in God go together.

Hope is believing in God with an eye to the future. Hope is the anchor of the soul. The ship of our life may be tossed to and fro by circumstances, so that our hope is small and weak. The disciples cried with fear during the storm on the sea. They were in distress and feared that they would perish. The poet of Psalm 31 says, "Be of good courage, and strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." In Psalm 42 he says, "Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" In this depth where deep calls to deep, the hope in his heart is revived. He says, "Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise Him … The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime."

What is the strength of the living hope? To what does the anchor of the soul hold fast? I'm sure you understand the figure of the anchor. The anchor is fastened to the ship with a chain. The anchor is cast outside of the ship and takes hold of the bottom. It is a foolish skipper who casts the anchor inside the boat. That gives no firmness and the boat drifts away.

The anchor is the hope, and the chain is the promise of God, the unchangeable and eternal Word of God. In that Word hope lies firm and the safety of the boat is assured. The promises of God are yea and amen in Christ to the glory of God. The Lord promises Himself to His children.

The Lord is Israel's expectation. He promises them temporal, spiritual and eternal blessings. He promises them the application of the merits of Christ by the Holy Spirit. He promises them His grace, mercy, love, wisdom, strength and guidance. By the working of the Holy Spirit, He causes them to labor with the promises. He discovers to them their poverty, emptiness, deficiency, sin and iniquity. He discovers to them the worthlessness of their own self-righteousness. And thus they become supplicants and penitents at the throne of grace. They lose all firmness in themselves.

Faith in and love to God's Word causes them to cast their anchor out‑side of themselves. They receive hope in God and in His grace by Jesus Christ. They entrust themselves to Him, and believe that He will do what they could never do. How their heart rejoices in God when they see that they are beginning to receive the fulfilment of their life, when the power of the blood of Christ washes and cleanses their impure souls, and when He covers them under the shadow of His wings!

God does not fulfill all our desires, but He does fulfill all His promises. The Lord performs what He promises. Hath He said and shall He not do it? Resting upon the unshakable promises of God, our life lies safely at anchor.

Storms may arise, and then the chain is pulled taut. There can be much stress, and we may fear the chain shall break.

Will the word, to Israel spoken
By our fathers' God be broken?
Must we in our grief complain
That His promises are vain?

In such distress the skipper sometimes commands, "Give more chain." It means that the Lord in His goodness and faithfulness, during much conflict and many assaults, often binds more and richer promises upon the heart, so that the boat does not break away from the anchor.

Perhaps someone is reading this whose hope is almost gone. Oh, bowed down and assaulted heart, listen to what He has said, "I will not leave you, nor forsake you. Be strong, when thou passest through the waters they shall not overflow thee; when thou passest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned."

He shall strengthen your heart. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. The hope in God's promises does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart.

Paul and his fellow-prisoners did not see the sun for two weeks. The storm raged more and more, and the waves rose higher and higher. All the lading had to go overboard, yes, the ship broke, they almost drowned, but still all landed safely. Why? Because God had promised.

By the precious influences of the Holy Spirit the heart is enabled to lay hold on the promises of God. There they rest and their hope is revived. "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts" (Rom. 5).

Singing Psalms in the night is the exercise of hope.

The church of God is begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Let us seek to attain the Christian hope. It is very bad and dishonoring to the Lord to live on in uncertainty. It is so dangerous for your soul. Look away from all your supports and your own righteousnesses.

I fear that the cause of our uncer­tainty lies in the fact that we have cast our anchor in the boat; that our hope is grounded in our activities, tears, virtues, and duties. We trust the Lord with so little, perhaps with nothing. We look more to circumstances than to the faithfulness of God's promises.

Also in the exercise of hope we are so dependent on the Spirit of God. So often God's promises are in the dark for us because our eyes are so poor, and our head is always hanging down.

And … down below it cannot be found.

David also was plagued with that posture, but he could not continue in it. He noticed his wrong posture and he says, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God."

We are blessed when with all we do or do not do we become hopeless. We can be wearied in the greatness of our way, without it becoming hopeless. We try to keep ourselves standing upright with our homemade piety. We never give that up unless the Lord takes it away.

In this way the promises of God become so precious, and are appropriated by faith. Out of living communion with Christ flows a living hope. This Christian hope is the fountain of a life in the fear of God. It is the fountain of true courage.

Having confidence in God's promises, Paul glories, "We are always confident." He hopes soon to be delivered from the body of sin, and to enter into the joy of His Lord. He is not there yet; he must still face the last enemy. But Christ has conquered death; and therefore Paul can also go through the valley of death. He will pass through it safely because God has promised it.

Dear reader, do you have this hope upon which you journey to eternity?

In Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan states that when Christian arrived at the river of death, he came through it well, for Hopeful kept his head above the water.

Bunyan also saw something else. He saw Ignorance, and he also stood before Jordan. He passed over quickly with much less trouble than Christian and Hopeful. How did that happen? Ignorance was helped over by a ferryman named Vain-Hope. Ignorance knocked at the gate of heaven and said, "I have eaten in the presence of the King, and He has taught in our streets." They asked him for his certificate … and he had none, so he was bound hand and foot and cast away.

Bunyan said there was a way to heaven from the city of Destruction. But there was also a way from the gate of heaven to hell. That is the great difference between the Vain-hope of the world and the living hope upon God's promises.

Dear reader, let the ground of your salvation not rest upon the "maybe" of a worldly hope. Let Christ be the anchor of your soul.