“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
I’ve been thinking a lot about faith lately. I think all too often Christians confuse hope for faith. There’s a very important distinction between the two: you must have hope to have faith, but you don’t have to have faith to have hope. Look at Hebrews 11:1 again… a part of having faith is “… being sure of what we hope for…“. The problem is that many of us stop there. We know what we hope for, but that’s only the first part of having faith… we have to be “… certain of what [we] do not see.” Faith requires both parts! Substituting hope for faith is like trying to win a race without crossing the finish line… you have to start and finish. The power is not in starting the race… anyone can do that. The power is in finishing. This is why faith is so difficult.
Now consider the power of faith. Matthew 17:20 tells us that faith “… as small as a mustard seed” can move mountains. Now that’s power! Yet, why are so many Christians lacking the power of God in their lives? It is a lack of faith. So many Christians talk, and talk, and talk about faith, but all they really have is hope. They hope God will do this or that, but there is no certainty that he will do it! They try to hedge their bets… they make plans in case things don’t work out… they worry and wonder what the outcome will be. Where’s the faith in that? When you are certain about something there is no second-guessing!
Now don’t get me wrong… there’s nothing wrong with hope. Hope is a great thing and it is a key part of faith, but it alone has no power. Without the certainty that God will do what he promises, the great acts of faith we see in the Bible would never have happened. Faith gives us the confidence to act on Gods promises… hope alone does not. This is why James so powerfully proclaimed:
“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” (James 2:18)
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)
It was faith that empowered Abraham to take Issac to be sacrificed. It was faith that empowered David to fight Goliath. It was faith the empowered Jesus to submit to the cross. It was faith that empowered the apostles to preach the good news that ultimately led to their executions.
Notice how faith always inspired fearless action! Hope doesn’t do that… only faith does. That’s why “…certain[ty] in what you do not see” is so important. The certainty of faith removes all fear, all doubt, all trepidation… something that simple hope cannot.
It makes me sad to see so many Christains lossing “faith in faith” because they don’t see God’s power in their lives. Yet, the problem is they never had faith to begin with! What’s even more tragic, is that the world sees so many “faithless” Christains talking about how great and powerful God is. No wonder so many people aren’t interested in Jesus… we proclaim one thing with our mouths, but our lives proclaim something completely different.
My prayer is that the next time we claim to have “faith”, we would look honestly at our actions and see if they reflect someone who is certain about what they are believing for. Faith is a choice, and choosing to trust releases the power of God to work in your lives.
This article has thrown a simple but comprehensive distinction between FAITH and HOPE which was often confusing me. And when referring FAITH in the light of the Biblical versus, it was more obvious and reinstated my FAITH (not Hope!) in my understanding the subject which otherwise was of the opinion that there wasn’t any difference.
Thank You Tom! God Bless You.
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Nice article. I’ve wondered why don’t churches just focus on faith instead recently. I’ve come to the understanding that whether one has hope or faith depends on their level of maturity – not necessarily only in a spiritual sense since faith and hope can be powerful for non-Christians as well. Those who don’t grasp the power of faith enough settle for the relief from mental burdens that hope brings. Those who grasp faith a bit further, would never settle with hoping.
Even from a totally worldly practical perspective, one can see that with faith, you can focus all of your faculties and resources toward a solution but when hoping you waste much mental energy and time just consoling yourself and convincing yourself that things will be better.
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THANK YOU! I so needed this! It was a good slap upside the head but it was much needed! God bless.
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This has helped me understand what i have been feeling lately. Thank you for writing this. It means a lot to me.
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-I am not trying to offend anyone but I used to think that I must have hope to have faith, however, I recently received enlightenment from God and discovered that’s actually backwards my brothers and sisters.
Contrary to what we have been taught you can’t have hope without faith! Hope is a joyous expectation, while faith is being fully persuaded. Most of us, even as believers, don’t really operate in faith or hope, but rather in belief. What we call hope these days is not true biblical hope but wishful thinking. It’s like that single mother that says, “I sure hope I can pay my light bill.” But that’s not true biblical hope that’s wishful thinking! True hope is a joyous expectation as a result of faith (acceptance of truth). Hebrews 11:1, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It didn’t say that hope is the substance but that faith is the substance. That word “substance” in the Greek is the word Hupostasis which means “foundation”. Before you build the rooms in a house you must first lay the foundation. If one does not first have belief or faith (acceptance of the truth) there won’t be true biblical hope (a joyous expectation). For far to long we have been trying to have what we call hope without a conviction of truth (faith). And without a conviction of truth (faith) expectation will cease because there is no foundation of truth to hold onto.
I hope this helps because I know I was taught wrong for years, and I just don’t want anyone of us to live in ignorance to the things of God because we lack an understanding.
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Do you believe that faith is a gift from God…..you can not add to it or subtract from it……
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I’ve been noticing that most of the times (not all, but most) that hope is mentioned in the New Testament, it refers to the resurrection from the dead. That’s something we as Christians do indeed HOPE for, but we can’t do anything about that now, so we look forward to it in joyful expectation.
Faith on the other hand, is for NOW. You never see stories of people hoping for healing, for freedom from oppression, or for the provision of God. Those are stories of FAITH, because a faith confession is a contract (its in the Greek) with God that He HAS to honor, thus bringing the results of that faith right here into the present, right when we need it. Thus we walk by faith in the Son of God, living a victorious life, not hoping to have one someday.
Thanks for your article – you made a nice clear distinction between the two.
Jonathan
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Thank you Vernon for your explanation. You are correct as Jesus told me so. He lead me to this article to understand the difference between hope and belief which I thought I understood until I read your comment and thought “what this guy said makes more sense than the article.” Then I just asked Jesus whether you or Tom were right and he said you were. I thank God for you being bold enough to state your revelation that’s opposite of what is typically taught. Your words have been a blessing, thank you!
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first lets deal with faith ‘ Im talking about faith now, you can’t go back in your past and believe, neither can you project yourself into the future to believe. you can only believe now, faith is believing god now .with god is is always now. then we think about faith is a substance hope has no substance. hope is like a dream just as you get to certain point in the dream you wake up its gone. but faith gives us substance or a reality to hope. everything we hope for we have in faith and as we release our faith what we hope for starts to take reality. it is then there that we may receive. then it is not a dream it is a fact. then it is evidence is proof, proof of things not seen.everything we see is made of things we don’t see. but if we walk by sight we can’t see those things which are eternal. things we hope for things we hope for things we must have to give god;s substance in our lives.
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