The Key to Hope | Practical Theology

“Faith is a kind of long-range vision that sees God’s promises as fact before they become part of our experience. This makes faith the key to hope.”

In his poem Harlem, Langston Hughes wonders, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Proverbs offers an answer: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov. 13:12). The history of the Old Testament patriarchs is the story of a dream deferred. But it is also a story of faith, the key to sustained hope.

Jacob’s story is an example. When Jacob fled from his brother Esau, the Lord appeared to him at Bethel and promised to bring him back to Canaan and fulfill the promises he had made to Abraham: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen. 28:15).

Jacob eventually returned to Canaan where he lived like a foreigner, but only for a time. When famine broke out, Jacob left Canaan again and went down to Egypt. Before Jacob’s departure, the Lord assured him that his offspring would become a great nation in Egypt. “I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again,” the Lord promised, “and Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes” (Gen. 46:4). When Jacob returned to Canaan, it was in a coffin. Before his death, Jacob had made Joseph swear to bury him in the Land of Promise (Gen. 50:5).

Jacob’s request expressed a hope that was born of faith, not just a longing for home. Hebrews 11:13 explains, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” Faith is a kind of long-range vision that sees God’s promises as fact before they become part of our experience. Faith is the key to hope.

If the dream is born of God’s promises, the person of faith leans in to hope. We live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Faith is not wishful thinking or pie-in-the-sky sentimentality. It does not eliminate longing, but it does redirect it. Faith is what reality looks like to those who view it through the lens of biblical truth.

For Further Study

To learn more, read How Can I Live by Faith? by R. C. Sproul (Ligonier).

BY Dr. John Koessler

John Koessler is Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology and Church Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. John authors the “Practical Theology” column for Today in the Word of which he is also a contributing writer and theological editor. An award-winning author, John’s newest title is When God is Silent: Let the Bible Teach You to Pray (Kirkdale). Prior to joining the Moody faculty, he served as a pastor of Valley Chapel in Green Valley, Illinois, for nine years. He and his wife, Jane, now enjoy living in a lakeside town in Michigan.