When Pride is Okay

In Hebrews 3.6 this morning where the author of Hebrews says “we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The Greek literally says the pride of our hope. It is an interesting construction because we do not normally associate pride with anything good in the Christian faith, which is probably exactly why the author used that expression. He wants to get our attention.

We can have pride in regards to our hope that God will do what he said; that Christ will return; that he has prepared a place for us; and that when we die we will be forever with him. The word translated pride does not mean the act of boasting, it means something that one can boast about. We can have pride in our hope, not because we generate it, and so indirectly we have pride in ourselves, but because it rests on God's promises so by being proud of his promises we glorify him.

The obvious question then is, do we have pride in our hope that God will do all that he promised and how does this pride manifest itself in our lives?