"The God of Hope"

"Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: Thou, O God, hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor." (Psalms 68:10) What exactly is hope, and how do you know that you have it? Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Paul (or whomever), said this after speaking of those "who draw back" verses those "that believe to the saving of the soul." The point being made, that the hope we have is beyond anything this life has to offer, and that we should not expect to receive any reward in this life for doing God's will. Peter takes it one step further, saying, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you." (1 Peter 4:12) He speaks of this right after he speaks about doing God's will. Therefore, it seems to make sense to me, that the will of God and hope are very similar in their relationship together; in other words, if you are not in the will of God, then you really can't pretend that you have hope, and if you are pretending to have hope, then you are not in the will of God; or something like that. It makes more sense if you think about what "therein" represents, because our inheritance into the kingdom of God is not based upon our will but God's, and our hope comes from what God has promised, not by anything that we can do for Him, but what He has done for us. It is God's will for us to be saved; left to our own choices, we all would have remained in darkness; therefore, we know that we have hope, because God has called us out of the darkness; we did not pull ourselves up out of the darkness, God has pulled us up out of the darkness! It's like that rat who was pulled up out of that tank. He knows that he was saved once, so he endures from giving up because he knows it can happen again. If God has pulled you up out of the darkness, then He will also see you through to the end; this is our hope...
"And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like those people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with Him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet Him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call from God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) NLT