Growing in the Theological Virtues – The Virtue of Hope Gives You Peace

The theological virtues are the foundation of a good relationship with God. Since any human relationship starts with trust, that’s the way that God starts us out on the path to having a deeper relationship with him.

The theological virtue of hope means to trust that God will be true to his promises. Truly trusting in God means not falling into despair that we can never get to heaven, or into the presumption that heaven is our right. Learning to trust in God and to cooperate with his grace to get to Heaven brings a lot of peace to our spiritual growth. But how do we grow in the virtue of hope? That’s what we will discover in this article.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have peace about your relationship with God? That’s the promise of the theological virtues. Growing in the virtue of hope can give you that peace.

Eyes on the Prize

What better way to start strengthening hope in our hearts than examining our vision of Heaven? Now, we realize that any vision of heaven we have will always be lacking. Heaven is more than we could ever ask or imagine. But whatever vision of Heaven we have in our minds and our hearts have to be something worthy of our desire. A mamby-pamby vision of heaven will not inspire hope. It will only inspire apathy. So study the Four Last Things – Death, Heaven, Hell and Judgment – and learn about the awesomeness of what is in store for us in God’s eternal kingdom! The next steps to grow in the virtue of hope are also mindset changes.

1. Set in your heart and mind that your relationship with God is the number one priority in your life. You want to do this so much so that everything else you do feeds into and flows from that relationship. You work at your job in order to serve God and his Family in love. You nurture your family in order to lead them to God’s love. When everything you do is oriented toward the goal of spending eternity with God in Heaven, you are growing strong in the virtue of Hope.
2. But it’s not enough to do what most of us do very often – adding just a little bit of Jesus to our lives and in reality making him just one God, one priority, among many.
3. Repeatedly remind yourself of the truth that God is the source of all goodness. If we are in a ,0619relationship with God, we also gain all the good things of this world. It is not a choice of God or other goodness. It is a choice between selfish hoarding of worldly goods and lovingly accepting those goods as a gift of love from God.

Integrating Hope Into Your Character

Growing in the natural virtues is a great way to cooperate with the graces of the theological virtues. When it comes to spiritual growth and character development, there is no greater acquired virtue to strive for than magnanimity. Magnanimity literally means “great-souled.” It is the virtue of ordering your life around the highest, most noble goals. Saint Paul describes it in Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” It is the ambition to become the absolute greatest thing you can be. Ultimately, it is the ambition to become a saint.

Magnanimity leads to the development of virtue in two ways:

1. It focuses us on unity with God, which is the only way to become a saint, and on Heaven, which is the natural destination of all saints.
2. Focusing on the higher, more noble goals means trusting God to get you there. It also means trusting God to fulfill your needs in the lower goals. Take as an example someone who is always scrabbling for money versus someone who generously gives what she has to help others. The latter is not stressed about money. Instead, she is focused on higher, more noble goals such as selfless love. She, therefore, finds peace rather than an obsession. This attitude toward worldly possessions requires a good dose of Hope.

Actively Working Against Despair and Presumption

The antidote to despair and presumption may surprise you. It is the virtue of humility. You see, despair and presumption both have their roots in pride.

Despair occurs when we pridefully expect to gain holiness through our own effort, or when we pridefully think our sins are too bad for God to forgive. Or despair occurs when we have an attachment to sin, which is rooted in self-love.

Presumption occurs when we become too confident in our own goodness and figure that we are “good enough” for Heaven.

Now, most people think that Humility is the same as self-debasement. But true humility does not mean despising yourself. Instead, humility has two parts.

1. Having an accurate self-concept that recognizes the good that God created in you as well as the gifts he gave you and the love that he has for you, but that also acknowledges the limitations of human nature, your weaknesses, fallenness and sinfulness.
2. Turning your attention outward in love rather than inward. So true humility sees your giftedness, but sees it as empowerment to serve God and neighbor in love.

So true humility sees your giftedness but sees it as empowerment to serve God and neighbor in love.

True humility recognizes that we cannot achieve Heaven by our own power. We will only get to Heaven thanks to God’s grace and mercy. But it also acknowledges that God empowers human beings to participate in a true relationship with Him, which requires us to respond to his mercy and cooperate with his grace to become a better person. True humility is directly opposed to the kind of self-love that leads to despair and presumption because it sees relationships as more important than self-absorption; it sees God and God’s Family as more important than individual desires.

Grounded Optimism

In the end, humility will lead to a properly grounded form of optimism. This is not empty optimism that assumes God will “make everything all right in the end” without our effort. It is not an optimism in our own power alone. It is an optimism grounded in the reality of grace. That is the virtue of Hope.

Get Started Growing in the Theological Virtues Now!

Growing in a magnanimous attitude and true humility are two very practical ways to foster the virtue of hope. If you’d like more help and support in growing in hope and the other virtues, the best place to start is the Keys to Spiritual Growth course of study.

This series begins with a free video tutorial that gets you started applying five vital components of spiritual growth to your life right away. Once you’ve seen that series, I continue to send you great free education such as this article you’re reading now, as well as videos, audio programs, and other resources.

When you’re ready to get serious about implementing one of the Keys to Spiritual Growth with some help and direction, full courses are also available. These courses come with online support, encouragement, and accountability to help you make some real change in your life. So if you haven’t done so already, visit the home page of www.fromtheabbey.com and get yourself the free video tutorial. Get started growing in faith and kickstarting your spiritual growth!

Brought to you by Jeff Arrowood and From the Abbey, where we are encouraging you to rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.

Don't Miss a Thing! Follow "From the Abbey" on Social Media!