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What does the word "hope" mean?

For some people, it basically means wishing on a lucky star. You don't know if things will turn out good or bad, but you "hope" they're good. You don't know if you got into the college you wanted, got a good grade on the big test, or got a good part in the school play . . . but you sure "hope" so.

When people use "hope" this way, they really mean "optimistic." They're looking at the glass as half full. They're trying to be optimistic about the future. And there's nothing at all wrong with that! It's good to be optimistic. But that's not what the Bible means when it talks about hope.

In today's Bible reading, Paul tells his friends in Rome about hope, but he's not talking about optimism. Instead, Paul says we have the "hope of the glory of God." That doesn't mean we're thinking about God like flipping a coin that will hopefully be heads and not tails. It means we place our trust in God because we know that God's got our future under control. "Hoping" in God isn't just a good feeling — it's a reality we believe, even when things are hard.

And things do get hard sometimes! When we're going through a tough time, experiencing stress or worry, it's easy to stop "feeling" like we can hope in God. But Paul says those are the times when God uses our hope to refine us.