Hope through faith is much more than an ephemeral wish that someday things will be better. Faith is not wishing. It is much more than a baseless desire. It is the result of reasoning. Hope through faith is not just about what you hope will happen, but why you expect it will. The stronger your reasons, the stronger your hope.
The journey of faith will take a person far afield of normal life. In just a short time of seeking, they will find far more in outcomes than is common to those around them. It is as this point that hope becomes a critical piece of enduring the journey of faith.
The faithful will frequently find the Lord showing them that what they thought was good is less so than they expected. He will show you the limits of things, situations, and people so that you gain the incentive to search for the worthy fulfillment of your desires.
Hope carries us through times of perceived loss. Hope will carry us when, in our journey to learn more and more truth, God reveals to us the limits of what we thought was desirable.
What God offers the faithful far exceeds what we begin the journey of faith in search of. No desire borne of the carnal mind can compete with the great things that God has prepared for those that love him. Through faith, you will accept that you don’t have what you thought you had—a realization which must precede a willingness to do what is still undone to obtain the real thing.
Through faith, you will continuously let go of what you thought you knew in preference for what you can’t learn until you’ve done so.
If we intend to continue the journey of faith beyond where those of a carnal mind would stop short—beyond satisfaction with far less than all that God offers—we must attain and practice the attribute of hope.
It is through hope that a person finds reason to believe in the great things God has prepared for those that love him:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Because these things exist beyond the limits of one’s present awareness and imagination, one must lean on their trust that God honors his promises, even if he does so in ways we can’t understand. This kind of trust is like a massive, unseen weight on one side of the scale. Heavy enough to counterbalance anything found in your life, this kind of hope becomes an anchor to you, mooring you against any temptation and any temptation to give up or stop short of your very best, no matter how hard it becomes:
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:4)
Faithful hope helps us continue to act on what we know right now, even when we don’t know what comes next in our journey to what we seek. This was the faith that empowered Abraham to leave his homeland without having a full knowledge of where he would go:
`By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. (Hebrews 11:8)`
This was the same faith held by Nephi and his family, who also left their homeland without a full knowledge of where they were headed. Nephi practiced this kind of faith at both macro and micro scales. When he went to fulfill God’s commandment to obtain a copy of scriptures from their custodian, he said he was “led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” (1 Nephi 4:6)
Hopeful faith “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) because it enables action and endurance beyond what would be otherwise possible. It helps us maintain belief, desire, and actions through providing reasons, in spite of those reasons being based on ideas (the word of God) and not our present experience:
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)
It was this faith that enabled Abraham to maintain his belief that God would give him a child of promise in spite of his age, his wife’s age, and the utter failure of the over 300 people in his household to obtain the same promises from God that he had.
Hopeful faith will make future things seem as valuable and sure as they would be if they were in your present experience:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but <u>having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and</u> pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11)
Hopeful faith helps you to prefer what is more valuable—though it has not yet happened—over what is already present, but less valuable:
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, <u>than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;</u>
26 <u>Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.</u>
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11)
This sort of faith manifests in diverse ways. It was this faith that caused Jacob to bless both of his grandsons, and even to worship God, in spite of being so old and weak that he could not stand on his own:
`By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. (Hebrews 11:21)`
It was this faith that caused Joseph to make his children promise to carry his bones back to Israel as he was dying:
`By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)`
As Joseph experienced, true trust in God means that you continuously act in full assurance of the fulfillment of God’s promises, no matter how far off or unlikely they may seem. This was Abraham’s faith when he was willing to take Isaac’s life due to the perceived infallibility of God’s promise to provide as-yet unborn righteous descendants through him:
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he <u>that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,</u>
18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11)
The Lord frequently tests our faith through tests and trials:
Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. (Mosiah 23:21)
Like everything God does, these are for your benefit.
The Lord’s tests of faith are not arbitrary. They are absolutely essential stepping stones to bring us to the desired end, when we have full and consistent trust in God. Their purpose is to reveal to you the limit of your trust in him, so that you can use this life to make the changes necessary to trust in him fully. He will continuously try you until you are “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [you], even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19)
While anything in life would detract from your trust in God, you can be assured that you are not prepared to be in the presence of God. God is perfect, and his presence brings with it an excruciating knowledge of your imperfection. Dwelling in the presence of God without perfect trust in him is a much more harrowing experience than anything in this life. The only way to have peace and joy in God’s presence is if you truly and absolutely trust him. When you truly and absolutely trust him, you will repent of all of your sins by ceasing to commit them, and you will believe Jesus when he says he will forgive anyone who does so.
Once you develop perfect faith in Christ, trials will still occur, but they will be very different. Because you are limitlessly willing to endure all things he sends, he will be able to free you from afflictions very quickly because of your humility and because of the law of justice:
`But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto himhe did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him. (Mosiah 29:20)`
`...I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. (1 Nephi 1:20)`
But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions. (Alma 34:41)
There is purpose in every trial: to teach you what you don’t know, to show you what you don’t see, to help you appreciate what you don’t value, and to accrue the justice of God. In the event that an unavoidable trial endures in length or intensity, you can have perfect assurance that the outcome the Lord is working through it is great, indeed:
`Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped upon them. (Alma 1:25)`
15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of <u>the Lord.</u>
16 And it came to pass that <u>so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying:</u> Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage. (Mosiah 24)
If a person travels in this path with steadfast effort, before long they will find themselves confronted with afflictions that surpass their natural coping ability.
If you want to increase in your trust in God, you should pay attention to the way God has always supported you and others in all trials, according to their faith:
Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. (1 Samuel 12:24)
And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. (Alma 36:27)
Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. (Moroni 10:3)
As you are willing to trust God in the things presently before you, you will accrue confidence in him that will enable you to endure much greater afflictions in his name.
Nephi provides a wonderful example of hope. Having gone through many previous afflictions, Nephi found himself without complaint against God in the midst of an onerous situation:
14 And on the fourth day, which we had been driven back, the tempest began to be exceedingly sore.
15 And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the judgments of God were upon them, and that they must perish save that they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof.
16 Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all <u>the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of</u> mine afflictions. (1 Nephi 18)
Nephi was tied up for four days by his brothers—who he had helped unceasingly despite their constant abuse—on a ship that he had built himself, with little help from them, in the midst of a storm that he had the ability to end. What an example of trust in God to endure such a situation without complaining!
Paul said: “...he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) It is essential to trust God, and to know that everything he does is for your benefit, even when (and perhaps especially when) you can’t see how that could be, and even when you feel as if you can’t take any more. To all those feeling this strain, the Lord says:
And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. (D&C 122:7)
Faith gives you the ability to denominate your well-being in terms that involve more than the here and now. Powerfully, the worse things seem in the moment, the more reason a faithful person has to hope. Because of the justice of God, misfortune becomes akin to compressing a spring: the more difficult the affliction, the stronger the eventual positive response is guaranteed to be. It is for this reason that those with faith in Jesus Christ hope for better things. It is through this hope that one with faith in Jesus Christ endures all things, and stands in the stream of teaching and experiences that God must necessarily lead them through to be prepared for eternal life.