Generally, when people use the word “hope,” they mean “desire or wish,” as in “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow for the game.” I thought a lot about hope while imprisoned, and I can assure you my thoughts ran much deeper than “I hope we get some good food today.” Just as the biblical writers had something else in mind regarding “hope,” so did I. What I knew to be my hope, the anchor for my soul, is the only One I could count on: Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews 6 uses the word “hope” not expressing mere desire, but an
assured expectation.


We who hope in Christ mustn’t look at our salvation as something we only wish will end in eternity with Him. Rather, we should be secure in our belief, confidently living in that hope now and looking toward the day when the promise will be fully realized. Fanny Crosby expressed it in the words of her 1873 hymn: “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.”