Hope is one of the main Christian virtues. It is an assurance in the fact, that God is always with us and cares about us, that He will grant us promised salvation. As Apostle Paul said, Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian hope. Apostle Peter sais: “Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter, 1:13). You can find salvation through hope with prayer and learning the true teachings and following them.
Hope in God
Christian hope
is closely linked with Christian faith. Faith
implies the assurance in something that is invisible, while hope is the
assurance in something what you desire or anticipate. Christian hope comes down
to the thought that the main goal of creation (the highest good for people)
will be reached no matter what. Christian hope is not groundless. In fact, it
is based firmly on the promises of the Savior Himself.
True
Christian hope is a virtue, as it is accompanied by readiness to overcome any
sufferings and to bear one’s cross without complaining, but with the knowledge
that everything sent by God is for our own good. The Lord warned us, that in order to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven we need to go through sufferings which will turn into
eternal joy in the end. This is why Christian hope is always accompanied by commitment
to God’s will and assurance that hope in God will never bring us to shame. However,
hope demands patience as well. Long-suffering Job in the Old Testament is a great example of patience for
each Christian.
What brings us
to sin against the virtue of Christian hope? These are such things like
arrogance, cowardice, excessive confidence in personal salvation, impatience,
and despair. False pride and self-conceit lead to arrogance. Some people hope
for leaders and other people even more than for God. People have no hope in God
and shift responsibility on other people, because they prefer to live by the laws
of the earthly world, but not the laws of the Heavenly Kingdom. Lack of faith
leads to cowardice. Excessive confidence in personal salvation is a thoughtless
approach to undersatnding and coming closer to God. It may be expressed as reckless and careless
attitude to danger because of hope for miraculous salvation by God.
Anticipating a miracle, instead of being humble and believing in God, is
another form of this sin, as well as inaction in time of need and unwillingness
to visit a doctor in case of illness because of a false hope in a miracle. What is
more, the most vile form of this sin is when people hope that God will help them to commit evil deeds.
Source:
CONVERSATION