Life is a mixture of ‘hope’ and ‘trust’.

“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”

Ecclesiastes 9:4

Hope is what differentiates the living from the dead. Any man who goes into despair gets into a state of depression and is not far from suicide. The moment each day becomes a dread because there is nothing good to look forward to, life becomes dreary. To keep hope alive is to live. Because of this understanding, great leaders ensure their followers are full of hope by inspiring them using all available means.

However, hope is not enough. Hope in itself is not enough as a motivation without trust. A life without trust is a life full of worries. A life without trust is a life full of anxiety and fear. Living life itself is a sign of trust. Mutual trust is the essence of relationship and sound relationship is the most important foundation for a sound mind. To rise up from bed and take the first step is trust that out legs will carry us. To get into a public transport in order to get to work, is trust that the bus company, the driver, the road and other users will work together to make sure you get to work on time. There is a bit of trust in everything. Without trust, there will be no disappointments. We often get disappointed because we had trust in someone or in a system.

It takes hope (a lot of it) to consider marriage. A hope for a joy filled married life is what leads into marriages. However, it takes trust to entrust your life into partnership with another person. The absence of trust or the low level thereof reduces the depth of commitment to another. For a couple who are expecting a baby, there is a lot of hope. They look forward to the joy of becoming parents. They do this trusting that everything will go well and the pregnancy will result in a healthy normal baby. Once the baby is born, the look forward to (hope for) a joyful adult life, trusting that nothing goes wrong as the little tot grows into adulthood. Truly, life is a mixture of hope and trust.

A coach often tells his players, “we would use this tactic, hopefully, it will work for us trusting that our opponent will make an error with their defense”. An army general makes his war plans in hope. He has to trust that opportunities to win the war would open up based on his plans. Without hope, life is meaningless and without trust, life is frustrating.

The manifestation of Hope

Hope manifests in positive imaginations. If you can imagine good things happening to you and if you can see great occurences in the imaginations of your heart, you will always have hope. The good news is that you can always choose what to think of. The power of imagination has the ability to transform our world or to destroy it. If your imagination is constantly negative, you will be full of fear, depression and hopelessness. To help your imagination however, you must feast your senses with positive things. If you have problem with hope, you must have been feasting your thoughts on the wrong things.

“Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God.”

“… whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Psalms of David 42:11 (BBE), The letter of Paul to the Phillipians 4:8

The basis of trust.

Naturally, man will neither trust in what he has not experienced nor put his trust in whom he does not know. Trust is usually based on prior knowledge or past experiences. Only a few times is trust placed on instincts. In such instances we need to take action possibly in a dire situation and there is no prior knowledge nor experience related to the matter. We conduct interviews, cultivate relationships and pass people through training/simulations/tests in order to have some knowledge about them. If we feel we can trust them, we may hire them, make friends or marry them. Trust is based on knowledge. If you have problem with trust, it is either you know enough about that matter or you know nothing.

“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

The book of Prophet Jeremiah 17:7-8

It is up to you.

You are free to choose in what you place your hope and in whom you put your trust. Note however, that God has given us great and precious promises on which we can hope and hope in Christ does not put any man to shame. Likewise, God has revealed himself to us in his word. Through the word of God, we increase in the knowledge of God and experience him from day to day. The more of God we know, the greater our trust is rooted in him. A positive imagination and a deep rooted trust in the living God makes a man victorious in life. This has been the lot of many throughout all ages.

There are others who have become famous and great without allegiance to God but you can be rest assured that nothing is given to any man except it is from above.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

2 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV)