I Hope you're Hoping, Hopefully

So it's been a little while since I posted and I have been meaning to do so.  Here's a nice short post to share my recent thoughts and get my Blog ball rolling again.  What is Hope?

I recently studied "Hope" as one of the Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel (pg. 117), and was taken back that it's not quite what I thought it was.  The world has a misconception on what hope really is.  In the world's view, hope has a connotation that leaves room for doubt.  "I hope my team wins the game," or  "I hope it's not raining tomorrow."  Well when the word hope is used in the scriptures, it is used in an sure and confident kind of way.  PMG says that hope is an abiding trust, an assurance, an anchor.  Hope is knowing that things will work out for our good.

Hope is closely related to faith.  Faith is an action.  If we have faith in something we move forward with steps we might not have taken otherwise.  Hope is the assurance that something will come of that action.  In my mind, faith starts the action, and hope maintains it.  In the Book if Mormon in Ether 12:4 it reads  "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."


Hope creates a foundation that is sure and steadfast.  Hope is the driving force that brings us to face the hard times and remember why our faith got us started in the first place.  I hope I can serve my mission to the best of my ability.  I hope I will receive remission of my sins.  I hope I will be found spotless and inherit eternal life.  I know that we can all attain these things as we go forward.

2 Nephi 31:20 reads,  "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of  hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."


I know that this is true!  I know that we can hope for a better world, and see it happen.