The first key to understanding this oft used phrase in the New Testament is understanding that language has changed over the last few centuries.  I remember my sister trying to figure out what was meant by “faith, hope, and charity.”  “You should have faith in God,” she said, “love your fellow men…and hope that you’re right!”  In general usage, hope seems to mean want, desire, or longing.  I hope that you have a nice day.   I hope I can go on this vacation.  I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.  If you look up the definition of hope (for simplicity’s sake, I used www.dictionary.com), you will find that hope is not just something that you want to come to pass, to hope for something is to expect it to come to pass.  When you hope, you have confidence that what you believe in is true.

Based on this, to have a hope in Christ is not just to want the gospel to be true with a hint of uncertainty.  Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).  We can confidently expect the blessings of immortality and eternal life.  This confidence is born of the atonement and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  When He gave us hope, He didn’t just show us that Resurrection was a remote possibility, He showed us what we can expect if we accept Him and do our best to follow Him.

In a recent address entitled “The Infinate Power of Hope,” Dieter F. Uchtdorf defined hope as “the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us.”   Speaking to those who are discouraged, worried, or lonely, he said, “Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time.”  I took many classes on the subject growing up and I love taking pictures.  Some pictures were of the “point and shoot” variety which take a very small fraction of a second and rarely come out blurred.  Others, especially in nature or low light conditions, required the shutter to be open for longer and if the camera was moved even in the slightest, they would come out blurry.  If I wanted to take a picture like that, I couldn’t just trust my hands to hold still long enough, I had to put my camera on a tripod (which, as the name implies, has three feet, or legs) to stabilize it.  On smooth surfaces (like a kitchen floor) this was easy, but it took some precision to make each leg the right height and the picture leveled on uneven ground outside.  If even one leg was slightly askew, the picture would (at minimum) be off-balance or the whole contraption could fall over!

Sometimes, when we are discouraged, worried, or lonely, we start to lose hope that things will ever change.  Even if our love for our fellow men and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ remains unaltered, our loss of hope can cause the big picture of life to be distorted.  It could seem as if our world were toppling to the ground.Hope is not knowledge, but confidence—confidence that our prayers will be answered.  It brings joy, happiness, and patience.  Hold tightly to the hope that things will turn out.  Uchtdorf quoted Albert Camus, who said, “In the midst of winter, we find within ourselves an invincible summer.”  I know this is true.  He closed in saying, “And to all who suffer—to all who feel discouraged, worried, or lonely—I say with love and deep concern for you, never give in.  Never surrender.  Never allow despair to overcome your spirit.  Embrace and rely upon the Hope of Israel, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart.”