What is HOPE anyway?

I got to thinking this morning that if I'm going to write about HOPE I should be sure I know what it means! I've been clinging to hope, talking about hope, and being hopeful. Today, I wasn't so sure I knew what I was talking about. So just to clarify here are some dictionary definitions:
1. A wish for something with the expectation of fulfillment.
2. To look forward with confidence or expectation.
3. A desire and search for a future good, attained with God's help.
4. A feeling of desire, usually with confidence in the fulfillment of the desire.
5. To expect with confidence.

I think you get the idea. In my own words HOPE might be described as optimism, more confident than a wish, and with some certainty of future attainment; expecting the best - for good reason.
You might ask - optimism in what? Confident about whom? Is it a good idea to have hope about anything we think we want? What is worth putting hope in?
HOPE for the spiritual journey is all found in Jesus Christ. Hope in anything else has the potential to disappoint, hurt, fall through. God is the only One that will not disappoint.
Now I admit, it might seem at times like God has disappointed us. Usually that's because we see with our limited perspective, not with God's eyes. That takes me to Psalm 25. "No one whose HOPE is in You will ever be put to shame."
My Lord and My God, my hope is in You. I know I can rely on You, depend on You, trust You. And I can do so with no fear that I will be put to shame as a result.
How? Because I am learning that the truths found in God's Word do not change and are true just as much for me and you as the day those words were spoken.