November 6-12

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Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews with the knowledge that they were facing immense persecution. In an attempt to strengthen them, he wrote a lot about people who had faith and were blessed. Before delving into specific examples, Paul shares this little tidbit as an introduction.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I have often pondered the phrase “faith, hope, and charity.” I understood the charity part in the equation, and I understand the need for faith and hope. However, I often clump faith and hope together. In so many ways, they seem like the same thing to me. On my mission, I often found myself confused by the fact that they were separated in Preach My Gospel as two different Christlike attributes. This verse written by Paul also seems to indicate that they are different things. So what is the difference between faith and hope, and why does it matter?

A comparison of the two

When you read about faith and hope in Preach My Gospel, you find words that can give us clues to the differences between these two attributes. 

When reading about faith in Preach My Gospel, you find words such as “power,” “manifest,” and “action.” In Hebrews, it describes faith as the substance of hope. When you read about hope in Preach My Gospel, it talks about an abiding trust, confidence, and belief. There is some crossover between these words of action and the words of feeling, but that is the main difference I’m sensing between the two attributes. 

Faith is a principle of movement, and it is often a result of hope. Oftentimes, with someone investigating the church, they may feel a hope that the principles taught by missionaries are true. This hopefully leads to an experiment in which they act in faith by reading the scriptures or being baptized. That’s why faith is the substance of hope. The definition of substance is, “real physical matter…which has a tangible, solid presence.” The substance, the evidence is the faith. The evidence isn’t seen, but it’s present in the change you find in yourself. 

Does this really matter though? If they’re so inextricably connected, does it really matter if we understand the difference between the two? I believe it does. I believe it’s important to recognize the difference between the two because sometimes we try to operate with only one of them. This can cause problems with each of our personal plans of salvation. The Lord wants us to have both attributes so that we can reach the ultimate purpose of this mortal life – growth and eventual exaltation.

Trace amounts of hope

What does it look like to operate without hope? To put it more accurately, what does it look like to operate with only trace amounts of hope? Honestly, it looks miserable. Essentially, you’re performing all of this hard work, but you’re not even really sure that there will be a payout in the end. Imagine working for an employer for an entire year without a contract. He says he will pay, but you’re not so sure about that. You’ve seen him pay other people, but you have some serious doubts that he is going to pay you. In the mortal world, that would probably be a good sign that it’s time to look elsewhere for a new job. In the spiritual sense, it’s time to find that hope and abiding trust so that your “payout” of peace starts immediately.

Hope makes faith worth it and doable. It makes it worth it because you’re finding the peace now instead of hoping heaven just happens later. It makes it doable because any other motive for acting in faith (fear, familial or societal pressure, etc.) is insufficient motivation and the faith will likely end. When everything is going wrong, when you are facing immense trouble like some of these saints described by Paul, it is hope that enables and reinforces you to keep acting in faith.

There are some payouts that come simply by faith, even without the hope. When you’re acting in faith and following the Lord (even with hardly any hope), you are likely still dodging a whole lot of bullets that life would like to throw at you. But it is so much better when you combine both!

I believe I spent a lot of my life acting in faith with little hope, but I never had words for it until now. I acted and did what the Lord wanted, but I was still stressed and worried about being good enough. I lamented that I would never be able to measure up. I found myself depressed, wondering if I could ever really become something good. 

Hope changed all of that. Hope is the reason I feel the peace that Christ always promised. Hope is the reason my insecurity and shame have gone away from me. Hope is the reason I sleep at night, knowing that whatever happens to my family, I can trust in the promises of Christ to bring the happy ending I yearn for. No temporal affliction lasts forever, separations are truly short-lived, and all the things that would keep us from being with our families have been taken care of. It is my abiding trust, my hope for those principles that make the gospel peaceful instead of painful. 

Let it be known that hope is a Christlike attribute that can be consciously developed in the same manner that we develop faith. It is an attribute that we can pray for. It can grow when we act in faith, but it’s not a guarantee. If faith and hope truly are separate attributes, then we have to make sure both are growing. 

Trace amounts of faith

So what does it look like to operate without faith? Operating with only hope is a lot like hoping the employer will pay you even if you didn’t show up all year. Even that analogy falls a bit short because eternal glory isn’t something we just collect when we die. It’s something added upon us as we become. There is no basis for hope if you’re not acting in faith. Surely Christ paid for your sins so they wouldn’t count against you, but if you don’t change (by the process of acting on faith), then salvation doesn’t just drop into your lap. So much of salvation is an increased ability to love and enjoy life, but you have to act in faith and change in order to grow into that increased ability. Without faith, there is no driving movement that changes you so that you can experience what Christ experiences. 

Hope without faith may bring some gifts (just as faith without hope as a couple of gifts too). I’m sure it brings some measure of peace. However, it simply doesn’t compare to the feeling of becoming better and experiencing the blessings of living with integrity and charity all while holding a simple belief that the Savior will take care of everything.

There has to be both

True salvation is a miraculous, beautiful, new us. Hope allows us to experience that payout along the way, and it also means that we trust the payout is going to come. Faith also brings the payout because we experience more goodness as we become more good. It is a tremendous and happy way to live. To move through life, experiencing tremendous growth by acting in faith all while believing in an all powerful Savior who can bring immense miracles in any form (hope), is the best way to live.

Perhaps the best analogy I can come up with is this: building a beautiful house. Building a house with only faith can feel hard, possibly too hard to continue. Whenever you make a mistake and put a hole in the wrong place or measure incorrectly, you think to yourself, “That’s it. My house is going to be ugly.” Building a house with only hope is much like sitting in front of the empty lot with a smile on your face, waiting for the house to appear. 

When we employ hope and faith together, we experience the satisfaction that comes with building something worthwhile. As we make mistakes along the way, we know that the house can still be perfect. Perhaps it will take a bit more work to get it back on track, but you can see the house so clearly that it’s worth it. The house will still take work. It will be difficult, and there may be bumps and bruises even when you’re doing everything right. But it is oh so worth it.

If you didn’t catch on before, the house is you.

I have hope in my Savior, and it has lightened my load. It has made my actions of faith so much sweeter. It has expedited the growth that comes from the actions because I feel closer to the Savior, more motivated to continue on, and less devastated and discouraged with each mistake. 

I know that the Savior will keep His promises. I have seen them afar off. I also know that He requires faith on purpose because He knows that it is only through personal building of the house that we find the happiness that is supposed to come with eternal life. I also know that my Savior paid for the entire experience and erases the mistakes completely.