Honestly, I needed hope today. My faith was challenged. Sometimes the faith God has given tremers; not because God is unfaithful but because mankind is not. So much evil and pain is caused by pride and self-centered posturing. This happens outside and insiode the church. So I was glad when I came accross this passage today in my Calvin reading. It helped me, maybe it will help you to keep hoping and believing.
"Hope is nothing else than the expectation of those things which faith has believed to have been truly promised by God. Thus faith believes God to be true, hope awaits the time when his truth shall be manifested; faith believes that he is our Father, hope anticipates that he will ever show himself to be a Father toward us; faith believes that eternal life has been given to us, hope anticipates that it will some time be revealed; faith is the foundation upon which hope rests, hope nourishes and sustains faith. For as no one except him who already believes His promises can look for anything from God, so again the weakness of our faith must be sustained and nourished by patient hope and expectation, lest it fail and grow faint. For this reason Paul rightly sets our salvation in hope (Rom 8:24). For hope, while it awaits the Lord in silence, restrains faith that it may not fall headlong from too much haste. Hope strengthens faith, that it may not waver in God's promises, or begin to doubt concerning their truth. Hope refreshes faith, that it may not become weary. It sustains faith to the final goal, that it may not fail in mid-course, or even at the starting gate. In short, by unremitting renewing and restoring, it invigorates faith again and again with perseverance." John Calvin. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Editor: John T. McNeill. Translator Ford Lewis Battles. (The Westminster Press, 1950). Pg,590.
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