The Reason for our Hope

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone

who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)

Politics.

Education.

Economy.

Religion.

These, and many more of the so-called pillars of our culture, are unravelling at an alarming rate. The foundations of a world we were raised in, and came to trust and depend on, are not only changing but crumbling before our eyes. There is disillusionment. There is fear. There is pessimism. In such times as this, where we find ourselves in a place we have never been before, we look for answers – we look for hope.

But what is hope, and where do we find it? Let’s look first at what I call a Level One perspective.

Level One

In the 2025 Global Leadership Report, Gallup researchers found that the number one perceived need of people from all over the world was hope. “Hope is the primary need of followers around the world. Over half (56%) of all attributes linked to influential leaders in daily life speak to the theme of hope.” (1) Researchers went on to say that “more people rate their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering when their leaders do not give them hope.”(2)

Looking up a definition of hope online, we find that “hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, a belief that something good is possible, even if not certain, and can help people stay positive and motivated, especially during difficult times.” This sounds to me a lot like wishful thinking in a time of unravelling, and I think it speaks much about the reality of our culture.

I am confident few words are needed to convince us that this definition of hope and this worldview are inadequate. Any worldview that places its hope on the possibility of circumstances being aligned with our will is woefully short of being well thought through. Yes, we need hope in these tumultuous days, but we need a lot more than this wishful thinking. We need a conversion of thought and of confidence. We need more.

Many who call themselves Christians have what they consider a deeper understanding of what it means to have hope. Let’s call this Level Two.

Level Two

I was at my son’s high school graduation. It was the last of four such graduations for our kids, and if you’ve been to such a graduation before, you know the scene. Doting parents, speeches that go on too long, funny pranks on stage, and the throwing of hats. As his was a Christian high school, there was an added feature: each person who crossed the stage to enter the real world of “hope and promise” got to have their so-called life verse read out loud.

His class was small compared to many high schools, with only 107 graduating, so I was optimistic we would be out in time to catch the tail end of the hockey game. One by one, they made their way across the stage, their “personal” verses following as they went. It was not rigged, not set up, nor was it a prank, but 55 out of 107 independently chose Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Therein lies a problem. I had nothing against the graduates – they were nice kids, formed by a particular brand of Christianity shaped more by the culture than by the text. From their perspective, why wouldn’t you choose this verse? If all your life you had been taught that following Jesus as your personal Saviour will help your life to go well and you will go to Heaven when you die, this is a perfect verse. Isn’t it?

No.

I sat there stunned, grappling with how we had created a Christian culture that had exegeted the text so poorly and had become captive to the culture’s perspective on what it means to have hope. They used this verse to support a self-centred brand of Christianity. To them, and to many others, hope is a belief that we have a God who exists to serve and meet our desires.

Jeremiah 29:11 means nothing of the sort.

First, the text is referring to the Jews as a people, not to individuals on their own. Because of the influence of individualism in our culture, we too often read the text through individualistic lenses. It is corporate, not individual.

Second, the Jewish people are in Babylon but wanting to go back to Jerusalem. They listened to the false prophets, who told them what they wanted to hear: not to worry, they would be home in two years. They believed God was only present in the Temple and there was no chance he was present in Babylon.

Third, they were exactly where God wanted them – in exile. According to the text, God took them there, and their flourishing would happen right there in the midst of that place and those people.

Fourth, even their understanding of hope was flawed. It had nothing to do with them receiving the circumstances they thought would make them happy; it instead had to do with something much deeper.

Are we not just as guilty? Like those kids graduating, or the Jews in exile, we have succumbed to the culture’s pressure, squeezed into a mold where hope is our picture of a better future we demand God give us. Too often we live as though Jesus exists to grant the circumstances we think will make us happy!

We need to move past Level One (wishful thinking) and past Level Two (Jesus grants our wishes) to Level Three.

Level Three

J. I. Packer says, “Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.” (3)

In a world where hope is essentially another word for optimism, there is a real yearning for something deeper, something more real.

In the words of Billy Graham, “Our world today so desperately hungers for hope, yet uncounted people have almost given up. There is despair and hopelessness on every hand. Let us be faithful in proclaiming the hope that is in Jesus.” The Apostle Paul described himself in this way when writing to Timothy: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope[. . .]” (1 Timothy 1:1).

Hope is not wishful thinking, nor does our hope come from Jesus. Rather, our hope is in Jesus. But what does that mean?

There is not capacity in this article to list all of what it means, but here are a few examples:

• His Presence (Hebrews 6:19–20) – In Christ, we are ushered into the holy of holies, into the presence of the Father. This provides a firm foundation and security in times of trouble. He does not fix every circumstance but is present with us in the midst.

• His Nature (Romans 15:13) – We recognize that hope is part of God’s nature. Hope originates and is rooted in him. He fills us with hope, and we overflow with an abundance of hope for others to see. As Jurgen Moltmann puts it, “Christian hope does not promise successful days to the rich and the strong, but resurrection and life to those who must exist in the shadows of death. Success is no name of God. Righteousness is.”

• His Mercy (Lamentations 3:19–25) – We have hope in the reality that in Jesus there is the gift of mercy, the forgiveness of our sin, and the invitation into his presence.

• Community (Ephesians 1:18–23) – God’s future has entered into the present world through Christ and his Kingdom. Hope is found in belonging to him and to his people, in living in the Kingdom. God’s nature is Trinitarian (community), and therefore our hope in Christ is in community.

• Communities of Hope (Acts 2:37–47) – It is the community of God’s people who have repented and been filled with the Spirit. It is this community who bear witness to the reality of the God of hope. Living together in this way, they enjoy the favour of all the people and become hope to others. We become “communities of hope.”

• Future (1 Corinthians 15:19) – Although hope is not only about the future, we must not discount the hope of the future. It is in Jesus we have eternal lives – past, present, and future. We look back on who God has shown himself to be and what he has done so that we might look forward to the hope we have for him to act in the future. Hope is the waiting for God to act, not in the way we want but in the way that is best and demonstrates the Kingdom.

• His Glory (Ephesians 1:12; Colossians 1:27) – In Christ, we live to and for the glory of God. We worship him, which is a demonstration of the hope we have in him. One day, we will be fully present with him, and our hope will be fully realized in his glory.

The world sees very little difference between hope and wishful thinking about our circumstances. Although followers of Jesus live in a reality beyond that perspective, many have settled for a belief about hope that Jesus will meet our desires. But those who truly understand and live with hope live in a reality that because we are in Christ we can put our full confidence in the guidance of Christ. His ways are best, and therefore we have hope. 

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(1) Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want (Gallup, n.d.), https://www.gallup.com/analytics/656315/leadership-needs-of-followers.aspx.

(2) Global Leadership.

(3) J. I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom, Never Beyond Hope: How God Touches and Uses Imperfect People (Books, IVP, 2005).