Hope in the Unseen Things

In the present world situation, it is easy to lose hope, even to despair. The times are distressing and confusing. Yet for every one of us there is another way to live.

The Christian life is blessed with two precious virtues; hope and faith. It is a life of things hoped for, a life of hope abiding with faith: “Your faith and hope are in God” (1 Pet. 1:21).

It is a life in which hope and faith are invaluable, “Because we do not regard the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Hence, the things which are unseen are the things with true value, because they are eternal. The seen things, the material things, are temporary and therefore are corruptible, limited in value.

All things hoped for are things not seen (Rom. 8:24-25). If anything is seen, we do not need to hope for it. Hence, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

The believers in Christ, are a people of hope. The calling which we received from God brings us hope (Eph. 1:18). We are regenerated to “a living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3). Our Christ, who is in us, is “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), which will issue in the redemption, the transfiguration of our body in glory (Rom. 8:23-25). This is “the hope of salvation” (1 Thes. 5:8), a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), a “good hope” (2 Thes. 2:16), “the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2; 3:7), which is the “hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2), “the hope which is laid up for us in heaven” (Col. 1:5).

We should always keep “this hope” (1 John 3:3), and “boast in it” (Rom. 5:2). Our God is “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13), and “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope” (Rom. 15:4) all the time “in God” (1 Pet. 1:21) and “rejoice in it” (Rom. 12:12). The book of Hebrews charges us to “hold fast the boast of hope firm to the end” (3:6), and to “lay hold of the hope set before us” (6:18). It also tells us that the new covenant brings in “a better hope, through which we draw near to God” (7:19).

Even at our lowest point, hope and faith offer deliverance, just as in the case of Abraham “who beyond hope believed in hope” (Rom. 4:18).

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” All the things which we are hoping for are substantiated by our faith. The Greek word rendered “conviction” in verse 1 may also be translated “evidence” or “proof.” Thus, faith is the conviction, evidence, and proof of things not seen.

Without Christ, we are those, “having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12). However, this can change. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26).

To lay hold of this hope and to be a son of God, one only needs to pray. It could be something like this: “Lord, I open my heart to you. I ask that you come to me and live in me. Grant me the faith that I need. Thank you for dying for me. Forgive me for my sins. Cause me to be one who really loves you. Thank you dear Lord Jesus!”