The Importance of Hope

Someone once said to me that they hoped I would feel better.  I wasn't in a very good place and this didn't seem like a very strong word for someone I thought really cared for me, so I looked up the word in the dictionary.  I was surprised to find out that "hope" is a very effective and encouraging word.  It is the feeling that what is wanted can be had, that events will turn out for the best, something that is looked forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.   We use the word many different ways and to many different degrees:  "I hope it won't rain," to "my hope is that I can handle challenges in the positive way that you do."  Probably the most important use of the word hope is in 1st Corinthians, the famous chapter on love in the Bible.  The 13th, and last verse of Chapter13, reads:  "Faith, hope, and love abide and the greatest of these is love."