WHEN SOMEONE GAINS even a glimmer of hope, it's cause for rejoicing, because even that glimmer indicates the passage from a darkened, hopeless state of thought to a more positive and healthy condition. Without hope, it's difficult for anyone to progress in any area of life.
But hope that's anchored in the mortal sense of life isn't the most exalted kind of hope—the hope that brings healing. When people say, "I hope all goes well with you," or "I hope you find a good job," or "I hope my child will be born healthy," such hope doesn't give absolute assurance that the desired end will be attained, because this kind of hope more or less rests on a mortal sense of existence governed by chance, by random forces of nature.
On the other hand, solid assurance comes from hope that's firmly anchored in God, who is Soul. This truth is brought out clearly in an account in the Bible where two of Jesus' disciples, Peter and John, encountered a man who had been crippled from birth. He probably had no hope that he would ever walk. He was simply hoping for a handout to get him through the day. But the disciples' hope was exalted, lifted above the human and anchored in the divine. They had learned from their Master, Christ Jesus, that hope in God, or Soul, brings healing to discordant conditions. With full assurance of spiritual law, and complete trust in the authority and power of divine Love to heal, Peter immediately cured the man of his lameness (see Acts 3:1-10).
