THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOPE AND FAITH (PART 1)

TEXT:

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." (Genesis chapter 11 verse 6, King James Version).

You might want to ask how relevant our Scripture reading for today is to the topic we have before us! Very shortly, we should see that the words "hope" and "imagination" are related and sometimes taken to mean the same thing.

     Imagination is defined simply as “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality"

In other words, imagination is the ability to see something with your mind, or your heart, which you can’t see with your eyes. Imagination is a word that is taken from two separate words: "image" and "in". Therefore, imagination is having an " image" of something "in" your mind. Truth is, in life you can't see anything happen without imagining it in your mind. Conversely, to see something happen in your life, you have to imagine it in your mind. This accounts for God saying in our Scripture reading for today regarding the men at the tower of Babel that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." This means that whatever you imagine, you are likely to see it happen. This makes imagination very powerful! God understood that the corporate imagination of the men at the tower of Babel was strong enough to thwart or frustrate His will for mankind; and to stop them, He had to confuse their tongues.

     But what is hope? According to Scripture, it is seeing something that you can’t see physically. You don't hope for what you can see physically, that's no longer hope. Hence the Bible, in Romans chapter 8 verses 24 to 25 says:

"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

      Hope is seeing something with your mind that you can’t see with your eyes. This is exactly what imagination is. It’s the ability to see something that isn’t present; it's seeing with your mind what isn't visible in the physical realm.

Hope or imagination is the driving force for faith to materialize. Saying it another way, faith only produces what hope has already seen. This is why the Bible declares in Hebrews 11 verse 1 that:

   “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Without hope therefore, there's nothing for faith to produce. The Living Bible renders Hebrews

11 verse 1 thus:

"What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."

     So we see that without hope, faith has nothing to fulfill. It's unfortunate that in recent times, Bible teachers and preachers have placed undue emphasis on faith, with such a relegation of hope that one would think that hope isn't relevant in our bid to get God to do things for us. Quoting Hebrews 11 verse 6, they have elevated faith beyond proportion without having to realize that without hope, faith has nothing to accomplish. Never again should yo underestimate hope because it gives faith what to produce for us.

PRAYER:

Thank You Lord for giving me hope that makes me not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto me