What is the Difference Between Faith And Hope?

Faith and Hope aren’t that different from each other, in fact, I’d even say they’re related. I don’t think you can have hope without faith, and that’s probably vice versa. A lot of people have their own definitions but mine comes from Hebrews 11:1.

11 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1

In other words:

Faith is having confidence today, for what you’re hoping about tomorrow.

Faith and hope aren’t in contrast to each other, instead, I’d say they complement each other. One starts in the present and the other finishes looking to the future. When you have faith in something, you’ll be hoping it happens. That in a nutshell is the basics of Faith and Hope.

What Does The Bible Say About Faith And Hope?

While Faith Is Believing In Something In The Here And Now. Hope Is Believing In The Future for whatever you have faith in. When You Have Faith, You’re Taking Steps Into Your Future, And Those Steps Are Steps Of Hope.

It’s more of a time difference really. Faith and hope are really present vs. future beliefs.

Think about it, we have faith that things are going to happen. But we know it isn’t right now. So we have hope for the future.

• The Single Person Hopes To Find Someone Who Loves Them.
• The Poor Man Longs To Become Wealthy
• Some People Hope To Defeat Their Illness And Be Whole Again.

These are only a few examples off the top of my head. But they all start with having faith, and hoping that things will change.

I believe that faith and hope give humanity a foundation. We have faith in God, and we’re hoping that things will get better.

What Does Faith Mean?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines faith with the verbiage below:

Faith: 

• Is a belief and trust in and loyalty to God
• (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
• (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof clinging to the faith that her missing son would one day return
• (2): complete trust

Faith is complete or total trust in something or someone. If you’re a Christian you have a faith in Jesus Christ. You believe his words, teachings, and promises.

This is faith. It’s the present trust, confidence, and belief you have in someone or something.

What Does Hope Mean?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hope with the verbiage below:

Hope:

• to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true hope for a promotion hoping for the best hope so. archaic: TRUST
• transitive verb
• to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment I hope she remembers or hopes to be invited
• to expect with confidence: TRUST; Your mother is doing well, I hope.

Hope is a desired expectation that something is going to happen. Usually, this is a good thing that the person wants to happen. When you hope, you’re expectant that the future will bring something great.

Now keep in mind, that biblical hope is built upon faith. Let’s use my previous example about faith. If you have faith in Jesus, you’ll have hope in the forgiveness of Sind, and his eventual second coming.

Without faith, you won’t have hope in his return.

How Is Hope Related To Faith?

To help clarify a little more, faith is the here and now. It’s the present. Your faith is what you have, and your hope is what you’re expecting through faith.

Faith and hope go hand in hand, like I wrote above, I think you can’t have one without the other. Mostly because I see them as different tenses.

For example, I have faith in God to change my situation. It’s not happening now, but I’m hoping for something in the future.

Now Faith Is Confidence In What We Hope For, And The Assurance About What We Do Not See.

Hebrews 11:1

If you’re still having issues with this, I would suggest reading the entire book of Hebrews, but the 11th chapter can shed some major light on this question. You can read the previous verse and almost see faith as a foundation.

Can You Have Faith And Hope?

Faith comes first and then comes hope. How can you wait for something and not have a belief that it is going to come? You have faith in something because you know it’s going to come, and you wait patiently, hoping for it.

Don’t get me wrong, while you’re waiting a lot of bad things can happen.

I believe you can lose hope, and that’s one of the worst feelings you can ever face. In fact, things work the opposite when you lose hope.

Lose of hope leads to a loss of faith. It’s a dangerous game to lose hope.

What Happens When You Lose Hope?

Losing hope is like falling into the depths of despair. There’s no way out and depression sets in. If you don’t know how to fight depression, check out my blog about fighting depression here.

When you despair, all hope is lost, and that is deadly.

It’s been a rough couple of years for me, and I’ve had a hard time with faith and hope. I left a great salary and a fun job to go out on my own, but I had faith in Jesus and knew this was what I needed to do. I started working on a Snowboard business & published a book. While I know God led me into this mess, my faith has been stretched. Almost to the breaking point a few times.

Faith keeps you rooted in the present and his presence. While hope turns your eyes to the future. When you’re full of faith and hope, excitement for tomorrow creeps into your heart. I’ve lost hope a few times in my life and it’s always hard to backtrack and regain it.

When you don’t have hope, You Lose Sight Of Your Future, And you lose sight of the dreams you wanted to chase. That is why faith and hope become so vital and important in our lives.

Faith and hope give us direction and a belief that things will get better. Without them, we become hopeless and lose any desire to live.

In essence, faith and hope are part of what makes us human, it’s built into our minds and therefore it is extremely important.

This is one of the first steps people take toward complacency and bitterness. When people lose hope they also stop dreaming, lose interest in life, and exist.

Whatever you’re dealing with, and whatever you’re fighting. You can have confident hope in Jesus. He is the way, and he’s here to fight for you. Just remember, your trust is in him, not your circumstances or the outcome.

Faith and Hope My Final Thoughts

While many people tend to think faith and hope are in conflict, I like to think they go hand in hand. Without faith, it’s impossible to have hope.

Make sure your faith is put in something real.

I’ve written other blog posts on this page and others. Feel free to read them all. I hope they bless you as they’ve blessed me writing them.

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