Chapter 5: Growing in Hope Through the Holy Spirit

God offers a gift of power and love and a sound mind through putting His very nature within us! His Holy Spirit helps us grow in hope.

Knowing the importance of hope is not enough. When our faith and hope are tested, how do we reinforce and strengthen them? How can we grow in hope?

The Bible emphasizes the source of hope and what the focus of our hope should be.

Hope in God

People have placed their hope in many things: science and technology, medicine, the military, academia, political leaders, the financial system, society, or even humanity as a whole. All of these have failed or will fail us at some point in the future.

Closer to home, we place our hope in family and friends. But even here we can too often be disappointed. Such relationships are vital and must be continually built and strengthened, but it is too much to ask family members or friends to be our only or most important hope.

The Bible makes clear that the only One whose shoulders are broad enough to carry the full weight of our hopes is God.

Consider these messages from the Psalms:

The passage goes on to explain why we can and should hope in God. He is the all-powerful Creator (verse 6). He “executes justice for the oppressed,” gives “food to the hungry” and “freedom to the prisoners” (verse 7). He has the power to open the eyes of the blind and take care of the poor and the powerless (verses 8-9).

When we are disheartened, we can turn to God to strengthen our hearts. He can give us real courage—courage backed up with all the power in the universe! Psalms 42 and 43 discuss hope in the midst of trials. The psalmist cries out, “My tears have been my food day and night” (Psalm 42:3). But then he takes stock of the situation and reminds himself of his hope:

This same basic passage is repeated again in verse 11 and in Psalm 43:5. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves repeatedly of the source and strength of our hope. For more on these passages, see our online article “Encouraging Bible Verses.”

“Christ in you, the hope of glory”

When we have hope in God, we can ask Him to put more of His hope into us.

The apostle Paul described this as a mystery that has now been revealed to the saints:

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Jesus had told His disciples that when He went away, He would send another Helper, the Holy Spirit, by which He would be in them (John 14:16-20). So the way we have Christ in us is through receiving the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-11; Ephesians 4:4-6).

When we receive the Holy Spirit, we become “children of God” and “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:16-17).

Read more about these awesome promises of sharing a glorious eternity and of inheriting all things with Christ in the next chapter. But for now notice some of the things the Holy Spirit can help us do in this life.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

The very power of God can help us transform our lives and deal with the challenges we face. The very love of God can help shape our hearts and minds to think like our loving Father. And we can replace fear and discouragement with a mind that’s peaceful, well-balanced and self-controlled. All of these contribute to the sure hope that the Holy Spirit makes possible.

Consider some of the other things the Holy Spirit does:

Our online article “How Do You Know You Have the Holy Spirit?” goes into these and other wonderful benefits of the Holy Spirit.

How can we have access to this wonderful gift of God? Read about the steps the Bible says we need to follow to receive the Holy Spirit in the sidebar “How to Receive the Holy Spirit” at the end of this chapter.

Growing in hope

Hope and faith grow as we study the promises of the Bible and the examples of how God has fulfilled those promises in the past and in the Church today. Meditating—thinking deeply—about our faithful God helps our hope to grow. Learn more in our online articles “God’s Promises: Rock-Solid Hope and Assurance” and “How to Grow in Faith.”

And, as with every gift of God, we can ask God to give us more hope. God desires for all of us to be strong and courageous, as He told Joshua. “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

And the message is repeated in the New Testament: “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul described a process for growing in hope that may seem counterintuitive. We don’t naturally associate more trials with more hope. But Paul wrote:

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:1-5).

Without God and without the Holy Spirit, going through trials and tribulation can be a recipe for hopelessness. But with God’s help, and with an understanding of how godly character is built, this process can produce hope that “does not disappoint.”

Endurance, godly character and hope in God prepare us for an eternity of greater service and the joy of greater accomplishment. And again, the love of God shapes every decision and every action.

All this will produce a utopia that will never disappoint!---

How to Receive the Holy Spirit

Jesus told His followers that they would receive the Holy Spirit after His death (John 14:16-18). On the Day of Pentecost, God announced the beginning of the Church with powerful miracles, and the apostle Peter preached an inspired sermon describing how we can receive God’s Holy Spirit.

After Peter showed his listeners—and, by extension, showed us—that they were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, they were “cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37).

Peter answered with a summary of the steps God has laid out for the conversion process: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (verse 38).

The Spirit is given to the repentant believer after baptism when a minister lays his hands on the person and asks God to give the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

Repentance, belief, baptism and the laying on of hands are the steps God asks us to follow today before He gives His Holy Spirit.

Learn more about this biblical process of conversion in our free booklet Change Your Life!

“Contrary to Hope, in Hope Believed”

One example of the fulfillment of God’s promises is the story of Abraham.

Abraham is the hero of Romans 4. The apostle Paul illustrated the importance of faith and hope through the example of this man who has been called the father of the faithful.

God had promised great blessings through Abraham and Sarah’s descendants. But the problem was that they did not have any children. Year after year, they waited, till Abraham was about 100, and Sarah, 90. They knew she was well past childbearing age.

Yet, Paul explains, Abraham, “contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken” (Romans 4:18).

William Barclay translates the first part of the verse this way: “In hope Abraham believed beyond hope.” Dr. Barclay comments on this verse in his Daily Study Bible:

“The essence of Abraham’s faith in this case was that he believed that God could make the impossible possible. So long as we believe that everything depends on our efforts, we are bound to be pessimists, for experience has taught the grim lesson that our own efforts can achieve very little. When we realize that it is not our effort but God’s grace and power which matter, then we become optimists, because we are bound to believe that with God nothing is impossible.”

When we are beyond hope, we can remember the example of Abraham, who “contrary to hope, in hope believed” and was richly rewarded by the God with whom nothing is impossible.