The Gospel of Hope

The Christian hope is not the false premise that those who put their faith in Jesus no longer have troubles. The vast majority of Christians live in places where there will never be a single possibility of ever rising up out of the unhealthy poverty they live in. Hope for the Christian is not the eradication of difficulty, it's not. It never has been. Not only that, Paul writes, but we were joys in our suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.