Journal Entry #31: Faith is Fully Matured Hope

Photo by Jantanee Rungpranomkorn from Getty Images

Thu 9 November 2023

Q: Dear Jesus, thank you for _______. We had fun today. And thank you for the new business opportunities. What do you want to say to me?

A: What is godly hope? It is not hope as the world hopes. The world’s idea of hope is equivalent to a wish. People say,

“I hope that I will get the job.”
“I hope that the weather will be nice for the party.”
“I hope that my child will be safe at college.”

In every such case the person is merely wishing because they perceive a possibility that what they wish may or may not manifest.

When My people hope they do so with confident assurance and expectation based on My promises and not wishful thinking. The Logos is the foundation of their hope.

Godly hope is a spiritual principle with spiritual power. Hope builds faith. When one hopes, they nurture the seed of My Word planted in their heart. The seed is nurtured by the water of My Word and the sunshine of their hope.

Faith is fully matured hope. Hope is an essential prerequisite to faith. And faith is the substance of the thing hoped for from My Logos. A person’s faith is the substance I use to create the thing hoped for just as a potter uses clay to create a vase. Hope is necessary to build faith, and faith produces the thing hoped for.

For example: A young woman graduates from college, earning the degree I led her to pursue. Her confidence in getting a job after graduation has nothing to do with the health of the economy and employment statistics. Her hope is in Me. She is confident that she will get a job because she knows that she is led by Me and that I will take care of her.

Faith is elevated hope. Faith is produced from a Rhema Word for a specific situation. This college woman has hope—confident expectation—that she will get a job when she graduates, and because of that hope she filters life through a lens of hope and stays alert for the opportunities and open doors that I place before her.

Faith is not generalized as hope is. Faith is produced from a Rhema and is given to a person for a specific situation. Hope is produced from Logos.

The distinction between faith and hope is important to understand because too often My people move forward on hope in My Logos Word when I have not given them a Rhema for the situation. They confuse hope and faith. This confusion is easily clarified by the simple distinction between hope and faith.

Tree of Life Ministries at www.tolm.blog