Day 25: The Relationship Between Faith And Hope

We now turn our attention to consider a little bit about the nature of faith, which is the positive outcome of repentance.

Romans 10:17 says, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’

Faith, as used in the Bible, always means faith in the Word of God. Faith can come only from one source: God‘s Word. It has only one focus: God‘s Word.

It‘s fairly common for us to say, ‘I have great faith in my doctor,’ or, ‘I have faith in a political party,’ or faith in something else. It is legitimate to talk about placing confidence in that way. But it is not the scriptural way to use the word faith. In the Bible faith is always based on the Word of God.

In Hebrews 11 we find the definition of faith:

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence [a sure persuasion] of [concerning] things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

We see there is a relationship between faith and hope. I have discovered that a lot of people have hope when they think they have faith. Faith is a substance—something so real that it is actually called a substance. On the basis of faith, we can have a legitimate hope for the future. But, any hope that is not based on legitimate faith is just wishful thinking.