A Living Hope

St Paul famously taught that the three greatest gifts of God's Spirit are faith, hope, and love -- and the greatest of these is love. Recently I have been studying each of these, and today am contemplating hope. To get a fresh view, I wanted a word cloud of the verses in the New Testament that discuss hope*: 

according (5) accuse (3) believe (5) called (5) Christ  (14) consolation (3) continue (3) dead (4) deliver (3) end (4) face (4) faith (11) father (6) Gentiles  (4) given (4) glory (5) God  (25) grace (4) heard (3) hearts (3) holy (3) hope (66) Israel  (3) Jesus  (11) joy (3) labour (3) life (4) living (3) Lord  (10) love (4) man (3) patience (4) Paul  (5) Pharisee  (3) prayers (3) promise (5) rejoicing (5) resurrection (3) riches (4) sakes (3) Saviour  (3) shortly (3) speak (3) subject (3) therefore (5) things (15) trust (18) world (3) write (4) written (3)

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The word cloud shows the words most commonly associated with hope in the New Testament by use in the same verse. In the AV ("King James") translation, "trust" is actually used as a translation of hope in many cases. The prominence of "trust" in the word cloud is because the thought or feeling of "trust" is so similar to "hope" that it can be a translator's judgment call which way to translate it. 

Paul's famous passage discusses faith, hope, and love specifically as gifts of the Spirit. The  word cloud gives us the bigger picture throughout the New Testament: the scriptures trace the reason for hope to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, often as part of the same thought: 

Hope and God the Father

• And have hope toward God ... that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. Acts 24:15 
• ... the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Acts 26:6 
• ... rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2 
• And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Romans 5:5 
• Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13 
• That at that time you were without Christ ... strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: Ephesians 2:12 
• To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:27 
• Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 2 Thessalonians 2:16 
• For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe. 1 Timothy 4:10 
• In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; Titus 1:2 
• That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Hebrews 6:18 
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 

Hope and Christ Jesus

Some of the verses here were also included when discussing the Father's role in hope, though some here are new: 

• ... God would make known what is the riches of the glory ... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:27 
• Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 2 Thessalonians 2:16 
• For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 1 Thessalonians 2:19 
• Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; 1 Timothy 1:1 
• Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Titus 2:13 
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 

I tend to think of hope only when I notice it is in short supply. And then, because it is in short supply I find it hard to refill. So it seems that hope is something that should be a staple in my walk of faith, and that re-reading these verses with their promises would lead to the faith in Christ that replenishes my hope. If I imagine it depends on my optimism then I mislead myself. It depends on waiting for God, and for Christ. 

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* Methodology: searching for underlying Greek words elpizo and elpis by Strong numbers (G1679 or G1680 respectively). English text used an AV "King James" translation, slightly modernized. While those words are typically translated "hope" (66 times), it is also translated "trust" a number of times, and "faith" once.