Hope
Devotions:
We pray and hope that our prayers are answered. We really mean we wish that our prayers are heard and answered. But this is not Biblical hope.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and 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 by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:1-6 KJV
Here Paul says that we were justified, made righteous, by faith. We have peace with God and this gives us access to the grace of God. Biblical hope is the confident expectation of good. We are to rejoice in the confident expectation of the glory of God.
We are to glory in our tribulations because we have another chance to see God's word work on our behalf. This is the word of His grace. We add patience to our faith to receive the promises. As we follow this we receive the promises and build a legacy of experience. This creates a confident expectation of good. We are not put to shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts that is a revelation of how much our God loves us. We are confident in His love for us. In our total weakness and inability to do God's will, Christ died for the undeserving, the ungodly. Now that have been made right with God, how much more do we have a confident expectation of God's goodness in our lives!
We do not just pray and wish for an answer, but with proven confidence we expect an answer.