Hope is a vital factor in developing faith. Hope is having expectations that God is going to somehow work things out for us, even when our feelings fluctuate. This hope is also the stepping stone to faith, for without hope and trust, our faith will never be cultivated. That is why Satan works so hard to leave us feeling hopeless when we begin to anticipate God’s help. As we learn to overcome the enemy’s negative lies and abide in the love and hope that Christ graciously provides for us, something miraculous will gradually happen. Our hope will mature into a living faith that God is fulfilling our hopes, dreams, and everything He has said to our hearts. With true faith, we are assured of this. We know it, without any wavering. Even though we do not see it revealed to any of our senses, His promise is a reality. True faith that has been tried and found pure produces a “rest” for God’s people that cannot be taken away.

“Now faith is the assurance[ the confirmation, the title deed ] of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality[faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]” (Hebrews 11:1).