What is the difference between faith and hope?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
We're going to talk about faith and hope.
And this is the Florida beach edition coming to you.
Faith and hope are not the same.
And scripture gives us a very clear explanation that differentiates between the two.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse number one says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for."
So clearly faith has an assurance that hope doesn't have.
Hope is always saying maybe but faith always very confident, much more confident than is
hope.
Let me give you a couple of examples and then explain why it's important to know the difference.
You could say today, "I hope that I'm going to win the lottery" and that indicates that
you're wanting, you're desiring to win the lottery.
You've probably bought a lottery ticket.
But you're not certain that you're going to win the lottery.
And of course, if you have a lot of sneeze, you realize that there's a much better chance
that you're going to lose a little money than win a lot of money in the lottery.
So not advising anyone to play the lottery.
So that's hope.
Hope always says maybe but it leaves room for the possibility that what I want, I may
not get.
Faith however, is the assurance of things hoped for and so, if in fact they had the
drawing for the lottery and lo and behold your number was the winning number, then you
could have faith, "I've won the lottery."
You've got evidence.
You've got assurance.
You've got proof.
And now it's just a matter of time until you go and actually realize your winnings by redeeming
your ticket.
Now why is this important to differentiate between the two?
Well, one reason is because we often hear ourselves saying, "I'm hoping and praying
that something is going to happen.
Hoping and praying."
And so that shows I desire for my prayer to answered but I'm leaving room for the possibility
that I may not receive the answer that I'm hoping to get for my prayer.
And there's nothing wrong with hoping and praying but Jesus said, "Everything you ask
in prayer believing you shall receive."
So it's not hoping it gets our prayers answered, it's believing.
And obviously, in order to believe that God's going to answer your prayer you have to have
some kind of a promise from the Lord that will give you that assurance.
Just like when they announce on TV the winning number, now you've got the assurance.
Well, when God gives you a promise and He says, "I want you to have this", then you
could have faith to receive it.
Let me think about another example.
You might say, "I sure do hope that Jesus comes back today."
Well, you don't know if He's coming back today, right?
You can't know that.
It's not promised anywhere in the word of God that Jesus is going to come back today.
Now, what could you believe?
You could say, "I believe Jesus is coming back", because that's a promise in the word
of God.
So you can have faith; you can have assurance of that.
You can hope that He's coming back today but you can only believe that He's conning back
someday.
Right?
And when we get into trouble is when we try to believe for things that God has never,
ever promised us.
Think of the foolishness of praying this prayer: "Lord, I pray that today adultery will not
be a sin, just for this one day."
Well, how you going to have faith for that?
You're not going to able to have faith for that because clearly from the word of God,
adultery is a sin every day, right?
Right.
Okay.
Jesus often credited people's faith for the determining factor of why they were healed.
And although this makes some people angry, it shouldn't make you angry because this is
Jesus.
This is the Lord speaking and He says numerous times to people, "Your faith has healed you.
Your faith has made you well."
And so, it wasn't their hope, although of course everybody hopes to get well who is
suffering in some kind of sickness, but Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well."
So you have to have a confident assurance based upon a promise.
Well, there are a lot of reasons from scripture that we can give us reason to believe that
the Lord will answer our prayers for healing.
Just like we have lots of promises in the word of God to give us confidence and assurance
that we could have faith to have our sins forgiven, right?
Yeah, how do you have faith that when you ask God to forgive you of your sin that He
does that?
Because it's so often promised in the word of God.
It's so often illustrated in the word of God.
God forgiving people.
That's one of the major things that He does.
And you look at all the people that the Lord healed in the Old Testament and New Testament,
then there's a lot of reason to think that maybe, more than maybe, that you're no different.
On those days when Jesus healed everybody who came to Him, we read that sometimes in
the gospel.
Everyone who touched the hem of His garment and so forth were healed.
If you'd have been there that day and you would have been sick and you would have done
what they did, you would have been healed.
So I'm just saying that if I was suffering an illness and I'm not.
Thank you, Jesus.
If I was suffering an illness, I personally would be feeding myself with stories from
the Bible and promises from the Bible that would build my faith.
So I go beyond hope and get into faith.
James said, "Is any among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church.
Let them anoint him with oil" and so forth and he said, "The prayer of faith", there
it is again, "will restore."
Well, not just healing but many things.
James wrote, "Does any of you lack wisdom?
Let him ask of God who give to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given
to him".
Wow.
There's a promise for wisdom.
How many of us could say we could use wisdom every so often?
But James goes on, "But let him ask in faith without any doubting.
For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
Let not that man expect he will receive anything", oh my, "from the Lord, being a double minded
person, unstable in all of his ways".
So James says that you not only have to have faith as you pray for wisdom but anything.
It lines up with what Jesus said, "Everything you ask in prayer believing, you shall receive".
And there are other promises very similar to that.
Okay, out of time.
Thanks for joining me.
Hope to see you next time.
God bless.