Elisabeth Elliot once said,
“Hope is not a wish; it’s a conviction.”
That is a powerful distinction.

We often treat hope as something empty, uncertain, and unreliable—not something we can place real weight on. Without meaning to, we trivialize it with everyday phrases like, “I hope it doesn’t rain,” “I hope traffic isn’t bad,” or “I hope I make my flight,” which I’ve said more times than I’d like to admit.

There’s nothing wrong with these thoughts, but we know deep down we can’t place true confidence in them. They might happen, or they might not. That isn’t real hope. That’s a wish.

We can get by thinking this way when the stakes are low. But what about life’s pivotal moments? What about seasons of gain and loss, of stability and unpredictability, of waiting and fulfillment? If our hope is only crossed fingers and wishful thinking, we will drift with the tide of our circumstances.

So where do we find a hope strong enough to be a conviction rather than a wish, one that can anchor us through life’s weaving of sorrow and sweetness?

Christ is the light of hope we are looking for. His light steadies us like an anchor in the deep waters of life.
In Him, hope is alive.
It is certain.
It is secure.

The opening chapter of 1 Peter captures this anchor of hope beautifully.

Key verses:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

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Christ is our living hope
“He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
(1 Peter 1:3)

This is one of my favorite truths. Jesus defeated death. This is the beauty of the gospel. We are not only saved from our sins (and praise God, we are), we are also saved to a resurrected life. He is alive, and because of Him, we can be too.

Everything for the believer is moving toward resurrection. This includes not only our final physical death but also the daily deaths we face: grief, loss, disappointment, and struggle. He promises to bring life even from those places. Because of Christ, the small deaths lead to small resurrections, and final death leads to full and everlasting resurrection. There is no place of death that Christ’s resurrection cannot reach.

Our hope is living because Christ defeated death.

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Christ is our secure hope
“To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
(1 Peter 1:4)

Imperishable. Kept in heaven. What Christ has for us will outlast this life and this world. Nothing here can corrupt it. The decay we see and feel all around us cannot touch it.

Don’t you feel the rocking waves of life? The good moments never seem to last long enough, and the hard ones never seem to pass quickly enough. But in Christ, we have something secure and steady that holds through every changing tide.

Our hope is secure because it is not of this world.

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Christ is our certain hope
“Who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
(1 Peter 1:5)

God is infinitely powerful, and what has He chosen to do with that power? He sent His Son to be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, bringing us back to Himself.

Believer, this verse reminds us that our best days are always ahead. “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”
(Romans 8:32)

We have seen His faithfulness and how He has brought salvation. Now we wait for the last day when resurrection will be complete and we will enjoy our full inheritance, unhindered communion with God.

Our hope is certain because His faithfulness is guarding you.

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Anchored in Hope

Christ is the anchor whose light steadies us in the shifting tides of life. First Peter goes on to show even more deeply the beauty of the hope we have in Him.

In the same way, the purpose of this blog is to actively remember and explore the hope we have in Him, to return again and again to what is true. These will be letters to your soul and mine as life continues to weave together sorrow and sweetness.

May hope in Christ become the steady anchor as we are carried between the two. In Christ, hope is not a wish; it is alive, secure, and certain.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
(Romans 15:13)