CAN I HAVE TRUST WITHOUT HOPE?

 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.    

Romans 8:25 ESV  

Can I have trust without hope?  

Trust requires me to be content and not receive instant gratification of my earthly desires; if I did, I wouldn’t need trust.  

Trust requires that I know that God is good and that He loves me.  He is constantly working to implement His will into my life.  

Trust requires me to believe that God’s will is greater than my will; if I did not believe this, I would not put hope in God’s answer, but would put all of my efforts into manufacturing a solution in my life.  Sometimes, I tend do this first; then, when I fail, I turn to God and put my hope in Him.  

Is trust the same as hope?  If I say, “I hope it rains today,” it means I don’t know, but I want the outcome anyway.  Trust is more than hope.  Trust says I believe that God will provide rain if He thinks I need it and won’t provide it if He thinks I don’t.  

However, I can’t really trust without hope.  Hope comes from a constant reliance on God; trust is my belief that God knows what He is doing and will do what He thinks is right.  As the verse states, hope requires patience.  Trust, however, requires obedience.  When God shows me His way, and it is different than my way, trust says that I will choose God’s way because He is my Heavenly Father.    

THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS:  Just as hope requires patience and implies I am waiting to hear from God, trust requires action (obedience) because I have heard from Him.  My action comes in many forms: forgiveness for those I have sinned against, accountability to those God has placed in my life as overseers, loving God for who He is, being thankful to God and those He has placed around me, and a humility that I learn from the Father.  

As the hymn goes, there really is “no other way” to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.  Once I learn that, God will show me how to do life day by day.  

Lord, please give me patience to hope in You today, even if I have to wait for the answer.  I trust You so that when I receive the answer, I’ll be obedient to following You.