If I asked you to explain to me what

hope is, what would you say? What example

would you give me from your own life?

Would you think back to a time when

you hoped for something, just to have those

hopes dissolve into disappointment?

Most people would. That’s because, in

their minds, hope and disappointment keep

very close company. Such close company, in

fact, that even the word “hope,” has a ring of

uncertainty. “Maybe it will happen—maybe it

won’t,” they say. “All we can do is hope.”

But there’s something very wrong about

that perspective. It flatly contradicts the Word

of God. He says “hope maketh not ashamed,”

or as another translation puts it, “hope does

not disappoint us” (Romans 5:5).

“Brother Copeland, how in the world

can you say hope won’t leave us ashamed?”

you may ask. “There have been many times

when I’ve hoped and prayed with all my

heart and nothing happened. So how can

you stand there and tell me hope won’t

disappoint me?”

I’m not the one who’s telling you! I didn’t

write Romans 5. It was written by the

Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the

Holy Ghost. So it was God, not I, Who said

hope won’t disappoint you. And if He said

it, it has to be true.

That’s why there’s no use in you or

anybody else whining to me about how it

failed you and left you ashamed. I know it

didn’t. HOPE didn’t. If you ended up disappointed,

you must have been using something

other than hope because God says real, Bible

hope won’t leave you that way.

“Well, I guess I must not know what real

hope is, then!” you say.

That’s true. There’s a good chance you

don’t. So maybe we’d better go to the Word

of God and find out.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance

of things hoped for....”

The first thing we can learn about hope

from that scripture is that faith won’t do us

any good without it. Hope serves as the

blueprint for faith. Without it, faith has

nothing to do. Hope is the plan that faith

carries out. It’s the inner image—the picture

that the Holy Spirit paints on the inside of

you, a picture that’s based on the Word of

God. Its opposite is despair, which is an

image of disaster based on the lies of the

devil. Despair says there is no hope.

Did you catch what I said a moment ago

about hope being based on the Word of God?

That’s most important. You may wish that you

were two inches taller or that you had a

million dollars in the bank. You may even be

optimistic enough to think those wishes might

come true. But you will not have the hopethat-

does-not-disappoint until you go to the

Word and find out what God has promised

you about those things, and then base your

hope on His Word instead of your wishes.

You see, the Bible contains the only workable

blueprint for your life (or any other

human life for that matter). It’s the manufacturer’s

operating manual. If you ignore the

instructions in it, your life simply won’t

work. It’s like putting water in the gas tank

of your car. You can do it, but it won’t get

you anywhere. Your car’s operator’s handbook

will tell you to put water in the radiator

and gas in the fuel tank and then it will

work. The Word is the manual of life.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries