Let us beware of supposing that any hope is good which is not founded on Christ. All other hopes are built on sand. They may look well in the summer time of health and prosperity, but they will fail in the day of sickness and hour of death.Old Paths, 48
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
Can a bird fly when one of its wings is broken? Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings; if, therefore, thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest exercise faith for the pardon of it and redeem thy hope.
Hope is a prying grace; it is able to look beyond the exterior transactions of providence. It can, by the help of the promise, peep into the very bosom of God and read what thoughts and purposes are written there concerning the Christian's particular estate, and this it imparts to him, bidding him not to be at all troubled to hear God speaking roughly to him in the language of His providence. "For," saith hope, "I can assure thee He means thee well, whatever He saith that sounds otherwise."
Hope is a virgin of a fair and clear countenance; her proper seat is upon earth, her proper object is in heaven; of a quick and piercing eye that can see the glory of God, the mercy of Christ, the society of saints and angels, the joys of paradise through all the clouds and orbs, as Stephen saw heaven opened and Jesus standing in the holy place. Her eye is so fixed on the blessedness above that nothing in the world can remove it. Faith is her attorney general, prayer her solicitor, patience her physician, charity her almoner, thankfulness her treasurer, confidence her vice admiral, the promise of God her anchor, peace her chair of state, and eternal glory her crown.
Hope is the handkerchief that God puts into His people's hands to wipe the tears from their eyes, which their present troubles and long stay of expected mercies draw from them
Hope is a supernatural grace of God whereby the believer, through Christ, expects and waits for all those good things of the promise which at present he hath not fully received.
Hope is the mainspring of human action—the lunar influence that keeps the tide of human affairs in perpetual and healthy motion. Without hope, all things would settle down into an offensive and pestiferous stagnancy. Hope impels to labor, sustains it, and makes its fatigues tolerable. Hope is the parent of enterprise, the impulse of ambition, and the nerve of resolution. Stop any man in any department of activity, and in any stage of his career, and ask him what is his motive for such laborious exertion, such self-denying sacrifices, such untiring efforts—and you will find that he is urged through his weary course by hope.
Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God. . . . Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come.
Hope is the key to the grieving process. It is what makes the difference between being in the downward spiral, headed to despair, and the upward spiral, leading to acceptance of one's loss and the ability to once again love and rejoice and feel with all of one's heart...This was Paul's point in writing to the Thessalonians, for he well knew the role of hope in the Christian life. It is the power that keeps one going, the fuel that runs the engine of the soul, the medicine that brings healing to a wounded heart. It gives strength to face an uncertain future, for it looks not to its own resources, but Christ.James White, Grieving: Your Path Back To Peace