Hope is called an “anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19). That anchor is fixed and fast because it was Almighty God who set that hope before us. He confirmed it by sending His Son to carry the penalty for our sins and cleanse us to have an open relationship with Him (John 3:16).

Hope is a feeling that what we want or need will happen; it is desire accompanied by expectation. We have hopes that stretch into the future. We have hopes that are realistic and based on observation or calculation. We are capable of having hopes that are totally irrelevant to the conditions around us. We can continue to hope when all the indicators we may have seen have long since vanished.

For us, hope can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. It is a necessary part of our mental health and activity regardless of where we live or the circumstances that surround us. We often express hope for something to happen for someone else’s benefit who we may not even know as in, “I hope you are okay.” It arises out of things we would like to see happen or something we want to receive.

Biblical stories of hope

We read, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). One examples o this is found in the account of the life of Sarah. Sarah was the wife of Abraham and was not able to conceive. Abraham had direct contact with God and was told he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 15:2-4).

In Sarah’s day motherhood was critical because being childless was almost like being cursed. People viewed it as a punishment. Sarah would have had the normal hope that any young woman might have, but as time went by and she grew older, that hope faded. Sometimes hope can be so extreme that it overwhelms a person. That is the sort of hope that makes the heart sick. Sarah felt heartsick.

God promised Abraham that he would father a child. It seemed logical and within the way of that society that a surrogate mother could be found. That was when Hagar was brought onto the scene (Genesis 16:1-2). Perhaps the hope that had been kindled by God brought Sarah to the point of trying almost anything including a sinful proposal of adultery. After all, God had said that Abraham would be the father and, since Sarah seemed physcially past the point of having a child, the solution seemed logical.

Sarah’s resulting actions caused trouble, as decisions contrary to God’s way of describing marriage always do. Amazingly enough, God then directly told them that Sarah was indeed going to have a child (Genesis 17:16; Genesis 18:9-14). We can only imagine the sudden surge and renewal of hope in Sarah’s heart. Isaac was born that year.

Hannah was another faithful and godly woman of Judah who lamented the fact that she could not bear children (1 Samuel 1:5-7). Her husband’s second wife, Peninnah, had sons and daughters and in time began to make the life of Hannah bitter. The story relates that Hannah was often in tears and brokenhearted because of her fading hope. She sorrowfully prayed to God (1 Samuel 1:15). Her son Samuel was the result of the prayers and faith offered by Hannah. Through the eventual encouragement of Eli the priest, God renewed her hope and her heart rejoiced.

There are degrees of regret and sorrow for hope that is deferred and that may vanish. Some hopes that are dashed may hurt for life.

Elizabeth was the wife of Zacharias the priest, and both were elderly as we read their story. Elizabeth also hoped for a child in her youth but ultimately felt reproached for her barrenness (Luke 1:25). People can be cruel in these situations. No doubt Elizabeth was also heartsick until the moment that God stepped in to tell Zacharias that Elizabeth was to have a child—a special child. Hope must have faded for them long ago, but suddenly it was renewed. No wonder God also said they would have joy and gladness at the birth (Luke 1:14).

Hope is universal

There are many accounts of men and women whose hopes and dreams faded with time. Humans have learned to live with deferred hope. Many have experienced a time when the heart is sad, but God created the mind with the capacity to accept hope deferred and go on with life, though perhaps with less enthusiasm.

We have all had hopes for things that are not reasonable or are impossible to achieve. We may often be driven by something inside of us or taught to us that does not make sense. Some of our hopes quickly pass and in fact, if they were not good at all, we might be very glad that they were not realized.

We already established an exceptional type of hope that is an anchor for the soul. Even a false hope does give us some encouragement and help to ride past a point of difficulty or trouble in life. We hope our business venture will succeed. We hope that the test will not be too hard. We hope we get home safely. Each of us can list a number of hopes we have that can be shorter term or longer. But an anchor of hope as intended by God is for stormy seas and a time when you want the ship to remain stable and secure.

Life can get that way from time to time. So we need something to hold fast to when we are beset with trouble. That anchor of the soul is fixed in Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice for us (Hebrews 6:17-20). We are to look there for a strong hope of consolation and refuge. This hope looks forward to an incredible eternal inheritance (Hebrews 6:12). It goes beyond this life.

God gives us a sure hope

This anchor is not always immediately seen or felt. Most hopes for us are for immediate results, but the hope we are speaking of here is our anchor continues throughout our lives. It goes beyond death, to the time when we will no longer have any part to play in this physical life. It resides in a promise from God of eternal life, a resurrection from the dead and His blessing to follow (Colossians 1:5).

Since we do not expect the fulfillment of this hope during this physical life, it was designed by God to remain as a secure anchor throughout life. The Bible gives us the essence of things we should know to be anchored, including the need to couple our hope with our faith (Hebrews 11:1).

God used Paul to express His thoughts to the Church. Paul told the Corinthians that our hope in Christ needed to extend far beyond this life (1 Corinthians 15:17-19). Physical life is only temporary, but is of utmost importance because we can invest in a future that God promises. He promised a resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:13). It is our ultimate hope and it is based on the example of the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work God does within His children to prepare them for eternity.

When our hope extends beyond the here and now, we are much stronger in faith and in love and are able to endure all things and hope all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). That hope is our true anchor not deferred or lost. It is embedded in our love for our Creator as He first loved us.