Faith in Jesus Christ leads us to believe that his plan to help us become like him can bear the fruits of His righteousness in our lives, no matter how broken and imperfect we may be today. Such belief is accompanied by hope, which leads us to turn our lives and will over to Him and to do all things He asks of us—insomuch that our hope to become like Him is realized. 

Hope in Jesus Christ is as necessary to our salvation, as breathing is to living, because without hope, faith to move forward unto fruitful action withers and dies; and without correct action, there is no charity, and without charity, our progress to become like Jesus Christ ceases. A perfect brightness of hope in Jesus Christ embodies happy feelings and the anticipation of good things to come, and it is accompanied by an assurance of the fruitful outcome we seek. Nurturing such hope enables the light and life of Christ’s gospel to shine and come alive within us, insomuch that others seeing our good works are drawn more fully to the Savior.

Nurturing such hope and faith requires that we shun doubt, which is the opposite of faith; and despair, which is the opposite of hope; and inaction to press forward with faith to do good, which is the opposite of charity. When these opposites take up their abode in us, they delay and prevent us from receiving blessings that heaven desires to bestow upon us.

Despair drains us of vitality and joy, kills ambition, ages and deteriorates health, and it deadens the heart. It is toxic waste to the soul and pollutes all that is good. In contrast, hope in becoming sanctified and made perfect, pure, and holy, through Jesus Christ, enables us to give our lives and will to him. By coming to do his will in all things daily, a tree of life is nurtured within us continually, (Proverbs 13:12), until we come to fully bear the sweet fruit of his righteousness in our lives.

Such hope is like the sunlight rising at dawn; it lifts and illuminates us in ways that enable us to use our gifts, talents, and earthly resources to bless others, and to endure all things in our path—abiding in the knowledge that the Lord’s promises to us are sure.

And while pressing forward with faith, hope, and charity, we come to a knowledge that Jesus is the rock of our salvation, the author and finisher of our faith, and the only one who can enable us with the power we need to play our part in the Lord’s glorious symphony of love and good works on this earth.

A perfect brightness of hope in Jesus Christ is not possible without receiving in our souls, a love of God and all men. The gift of Christ's pure love comes into the hearts of all who are converted in the Gospel, and who forgive offenses that come because of the word, and who continue in his word, until that perfect day when they can receive hold fast to the gift of charity, or the pure love of Jesus Christ.