What is the difference between positive thinking and hope? Well, positive thinking puts on rose-colored glasses and says, “I hope it doesn’t rain this afternoon,” when it knows the forecast calls for thundershowers, and sprinkles have already begun to fall. Hope looks expectantly into the growing darkness and says, “I’m confident we’ll be okay,” even when the crops have grown waterlogged and bankruptcy lurks around the corner.

The real difference between the two comes down to source. Positive thinking flows from the choice to believe that everything will turn out all right in the end – whether it actually does or not. Biblical hope takes its stand on the unchanging character of God, that He means what He says, and that He will certainly keep all His promises – whether it looks that way or not. In other words, positive thinking depends on us, while hope depends on God Almighty. That’s why the apostle Paul could remind his Ephesian friends that before they came to Jesus, they had been “without hope and without God in the world.” Christians are sustained by the liveliest hope on the planet, because God has promised to take care of them for eternity. Christians must share their belief that all really will be well – a dark and hurting world needs to hear about that hope; the hope of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.

This is Luis Palau.