How Hope-Filled Does God Want Us?
- Steve Backlund
- 13 minutes ago
- 5 min read
How Hope-Filled Does God Want Us?
By Steve Backlund
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
“Don’t get your hopes up.” We have probably all heard that phrase. It usually comes from someone (frequently ourselves) trying to protect us from disappointment. “Don’t expect too much. Keep your expectations realistic.”
For some of us, hope actually feels risky. We have hoped, prayed, and believed, only to experience disappointment. After all of that, lowering our expectations can feel safer than trying to hope again. But there is a cost to protecting ourselves this way.
There are two ways to live: we can keep our hopes low and protect ourselves from disappointment, or we can live hope-filled lives and accept the risk of occasional disappointment. I choose a hope-filled life.
Jeremiah 29:11 becomes even more powerful when we remember its context. God spoke these words to people living in exile in Babylon—and He had just told them they would be there for seventy years. Yet He told them to build houses, plant gardens, marry, have children, and seek the good of the city where they lived (Jeremiah 29:5–10). In circumstances they would not have chosen, God told them they still had a future and a hope.
Does God want us to get our hopes up? If so, how much? Let’s keep considering this.
I have recently taken a deep dive into the Old Testament book of Zechariah, and this question fascinated me. Zechariah was speaking to people who had plenty of reasons to keep their expectations low. Jerusalem had been devastated, the temple destroyed, and God's people had experienced decades of captivity. A remnant had returned, but they were still living among the consequences of previous generations' failure. As I read through Zechariah, something became increasingly clear. God did not primarily respond to their discouraging circumstances by lowering their expectations. He repeatedly gave them reasons to raise them.
God Gave Them Something Better to See
"Faith is not blind, it’s visionary." - Wendy Backlund
God told them He was returning to Jerusalem with mercy (Zechariah 1:16; 8:3). He promised Zerubbabel that the temple would be completed and that the mountain standing in his way would become a plain (4:7–9). Then God began painting remarkable pictures of what was ahead.
Old men and women would once again sit peacefully in the streets of Jerusalem while boys and girls played around them (8:4–5).
The seed would prosper, the vine would produce fruit, and the ground would give its increase (8:12).
God declared, “I am determined to do good to Jerusalem” (8:15).
Their seasons of mourning would become “joy and gladness and cheerful feasts” (8:19).
People from the nations would come seeking God because they had heard He was with His people (8:20–23).
God called them “prisoners of hope” and promised double restoration (9:12).
He would gather scattered families, strengthen His people, and cause their children to rejoice (10:6–10).
The weak would become like David (12:8).
God would pour out “the Spirit of grace and supplication” (12:10).
Living waters would flow from Jerusalem, and ultimately “the LORD shall be King over all the earth” (14:8–9).
God was filling their minds with pictures of a better future. In fact, about 80% of the prophecies in Zechariah were about a good future.
Why So Much Hope?
As I read these chapters, I began asking why God spent so much time telling them about good things that were coming. Some promises would be fulfilled in their lifetime, but many pointed hundreds of years (or even thousands) into the future.
God wasn't just satisfying their curiosity about the future, but training them to believe differently in the present. The rubble said, “Things are bad,” while God talked about children someday playing in those streets. The opposition said, “This is too difficult,” while God said the mountain would become a plain. Their losses spoke of the past, while God declared, “I am determined to do good to Jerusalem.”
Hope Makes Our Hands Strong
One phrase in Zechariah 8 especially speaks to me: “Let your hands be strong” (Zechariah 8:9, 13). It is no accident this command appears in a chapter overflowing with promises about the future.
I often say, hope is the belief that the future will be better than the present, and we have the power to help make it so. When we believe nothing will change, passivity makes sense; but when we believe God is at work and something better is emerging, we begin living differently.
The Book of Ezra shows us the effect these prophetic words had on the people. As Haggai and Zechariah prophesied, Zerubbabel and Joshua “rose up and began to build” (Ezra 5:1–2). Later, we read that the elders “built, and they prospered through the prophesying” of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 6:14). Their beliefs changed, their hope increased, their hands became strong, and the work advanced. The prophecy didn't do the building for them, but it created something in them that caused them to build.
What Are You Expecting?
God still wants to get our hopes up. This doesn't mean denying problems, ignoring sin, or pretending everything is wonderful. Jeremiah didn't deny seventy years of exile, and Zechariah didn't deny the rubble. Biblical hope doesn't require us to deny present reality, but it gives us a greater reality to build toward.
What are you believing about your family ten years from now? What are you expecting for generations to come? What do you believe God will do in your church, organization, neighborhood, region, or nation? What are you building toward?
God reveals His promised future, and that revelation renews our thinking, fills us with hope, and strengthens us to build. Much of what we build will not reach its greatest fulfillment until generations after we are gone, but that doesn't lessen the importance of what we are building today. We are part of making the better future happen.
It is time to reject one of the world's favorite pieces of advice. Instead of “Don't get your hopes up,” let's believe that God wants us to get our hopes up greatly —about our families, the next generation, what He can do through us, and especially about His goodness.
And like Zerubbabel, let's allow that hope to strengthen our hands to build
Declarations
My hope is increasing because my confidence is in the goodness of God.
I see beyond present circumstances and believe for the better future God is revealing.
Hope strengthens my hands to build, pray, take risks, and invest in future generations.
I am a prisoner of hope, and discouraging circumstances do not determine my expectations.
I expect God's goodness in my family, my relationships, my calling, and the generations coming after me.
