For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
—Romans 8:24-25
Did you know that you need hope? We all do. The Swiss theologian Emil Brunner said, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of human life.” Just as your body would die without oxygen, your spirit will suffocate without hope. It is not a luxury. It is a necessity of the soul.
In our culture we hear a great deal about love, and plenty about faith. But we don’t hear nearly as much about hope. Yet from the very beginning, God has been the God who provides hope. After Adam and Eve sinned and plunged the planet into pain, He gave a promise of a Redeemer to come. That hope has a name: Jesus Christ.
Now Paul says something here that we need to understand, because it explains why faith so often feels like waiting. “Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” By definition, hope is about what we don’t yet have in hand. If you can already see it, you don’t hope for it, you simply possess it. So, the very nature of Christian hope is that it reaches toward an unseen promise.
That’s important, because a lot of believers get discouraged when the full deliverance hasn’t arrived yet. They think something must be wrong with their faith. But Paul says no, this is exactly how it’s designed to work. “In this hope we were saved.” We were saved into a hope, and a hope, by definition, is not yet fully realized. We wait for it, and Paul adds, we “wait for it with patience.”
Think about what that means for the unseen things you’re trusting God for. The redemption of your body, the renewal of all things, the day every tear is wiped away, you can’t see them yet. But the fact that they’re unseen doesn’t make them uncertain. Just like the air you breathe, the promise is invisible and absolutely real.
So, what do you need hope for today? Is it physical pain? Disease? Addiction? Depression? A broken heart? A habit you can’t shake? Whatever your need, God’s plan is to give you a future and a hope. Jesus was sent to conquer pain and death and to give hope to the hopeless. He is your Redeemer, and He is your hope.
And here’s the steadying truth in the waiting: your hope doesn’t rest on whether you can see the answer. It rests on the One who made the promise. Hope that is seen has already been spent; hope that is unseen still has all its power before you.
So, breathe it in like oxygen. Don’t put your hope in your circumstances, your feelings, or what you can see in front of you. Set your hope fully on Jesus Christ, the unseen but unfailing promise of God, and wait for Him with patience.
HOPE IS THE OXYGEN OF THE SOUL, SET YOUR HOPE FULLY ON JESUS, THE UNSEEN BUT UNFAILING PROMISE OF GOD.
