More Than False Hope (Friday Devotional)

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.”

- Hebrews 10:23

It’s present every time somebody buys a lottery ticket. Politicians frequently traffic in it, especially during election years. And for every sports team that spent the previous season in the cellar, it’s an intoxicating motivator when the new year begins. In so many areas of life, false hope is a powerful thing.

False hope refers to the distortion of true, reasonable hope. While hope has a foundation in realistic expectation, false hope deals in blind faith, where evidence is neither needed nor particularly desired. Hope can lead to victory, but false hope only breeds disappointment.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is firmly grounded in hope—hope that the cross redeems all who believe in its power, hope that Christ will come again, hope in the resurrection and in life everlasting. Believers cling to these promises from God especially in hard times, when the burdens of life are oppressive and the world seems governed more by chaos and sin than by a sovereign, loving God. But for all the assurance that the Holy Spirit provides, for all the ways creation testifies to God’s glory, and for all the proof that Scripture offers, ultimately the confession that Jesus is Lord is an article of faith—built upon “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The gospel is not proved by what you can observe, but by hope.

But it is not a false hope. You can hold fast to the confession, you can believe without feeling foolish, because God is faithful. You can trust God to keep His ultimate promises because He keeps His daily promises, because His mercies are new every morning. Even when you waver, He remains steadfast; even when you are weak, He is strong. The promise of the gospel is ultimately proved not by anything you bring to the table, but by the faithfulness of the promiser.

In those moments when you are plagued by doubt and when you have far more questions than answers, may the faithfulness of God serve as an encouragement. Faith, even faith that falters, is powerful when you know who to place it in—so long as God is true, your hope in Him is never false.