As Christians we often talk about love and faith, but less about hope. The Apostle Paul advises us in his first letter to Corinth that these are the three virtues that will remain, so we’re best to get better acquainted. 

Hope is a confident expectation for something in the future. To help define it, Hebrews 11:1 says “now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Here we see that not only are faith and hope almost synonymous, but that they’re also inter-dependent. 

To remove hope from this great verse and the definition of faith is destroyed. You would still have assurance of what we do not see. As Minnesota Pastor John Piper puts it, “faith can look back, as well as forward, whereas hope is faith in the future sense.” So to take hope out is to stunt your faith because there is no longer a forward progression. 

You might use ‘hope’ interchangeably with wishful thinking, but biblically there is a confidence that we possess as we remember just who our hope is in.