How to Hope Fully When “Hopefully” Fails - Amy Lively
“Hopeless” sees no possibility of success, and “hopefully” is just an expression of my desired outcome for my current circumstances based upon my feelings. Grammatically, “hopefully” is an adverb that modifies the rest of the sentence. It’s structurally dispensable: You can toss it out and lose nothing except the speaker’s emotion about the real subject. “Hopefully” is an expression of how I feel about what I’m about to say. When we pry these emotional words apart, we can invite God’s power to enter in the tiny space between them.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded,
set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:13 ESV
Oh, what a difference a space makes!
Hope encompasses all your expectations, confidence, assurance, and anticipation. Peter describes it as a “living hope” that is active, alive, full of breath, fresh, strong, efficient, powerful, and thriving. Hope isn’t a wish, it’s a grounded reality based on the promises of God.
To hope fully means your confidence, trust, and reliance is perfectly, completely, entirely, and steadfastly established and rooted in Jesus Christ.
Hope isn’t an escape from reality, it’s a real person.
Hope is not a wish for a happy ending someday.
Hope is a decision to trust God today.
When “hopefully” fails, hope fully in Jesus.
