"You lived in this world without God and without hope." The Apostle Paul is explaining how God's grace has been given to the Gentiles (non-Jews), bringing them into His family, and uniting them with Jews in a new community—the body of Christ. Formerly, the Gentiles were disdained by the Jews and excluded from the covenant promises of God. Thus, Gentiles were without God and, consequently, without hope. Living without hope is a dreadful way to live. Nobody wants to live without hope--hope for a better life, a better tomorrow, a better eternity. Hope brings meaning to everything that happens in our lives. When my wife was diagnosed with cancer, we hoped that medical treatment would restore her health. When it didn't, we hoped that God would heal her. But when He didn't, it was our hope for eternal life in Christ that sustained us. Yes, hope springs eternal; it remains in spite of the odds. So, our lives are not so much about what happens to us or what God does or doesn't do for us, but that we have hope in Him and His promises. And we must hope because we can't have faith without hope. Hope activates faith:
"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see" (Hebrews 1:11). Therefore, we should always keep on hoping in God and His promises because hope helps us persevere through this earthly life by allowing us glimpses of eternity:
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come."
-Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, 1733
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