Faith vs Hope?

I have never really thought about the difference in faith and hope. They were always interchangable to me, and as I was looking up some things online today and came across this article about praying that I thought was worth sharing.

The first step for getting answers to your prayers is to find scriptures that definitely promise the specific thing you are praying for. John 15:7 says "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you." But James 1:6-7 says "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

The second step for answered prayer is you must ask God for what you want and believe that you receive it. In Mark 11:24 Jesus says "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Notice the scripture does not say to believe that you will receive it. It says believe that you have received it. This means that you must believe that you have the answer already, even before you physically possess the answer. This is faith. Many times people are praying, thinking that they are believing, when in reality they are not believing, but hoping. Hope and faith are not the same. If you're praying and expecting that God will, sometime in the future, answer your prayer, then you are not believing but hoping. Faith says that God has answered my prayer the very moment that I prayed. Faith is not a future hope, but a present fact. It is the substance of things once hoped for, but now not hoped for but believed. The difference between faith and hope is that hope is always in the future, and faith always in the present. Hope is expecting, faith is accepting. The language of the one is, "He will bless"; the language of the other, "He does bless."

The third step is thank God for the answer before you can see it. Since you already believed that God has answered your prayer, the only logical step is to thank Him in advance for the answer.

And fourthly Let every thought affirm that you have the answer to your prayer. Satan battles against the mind, so do not allow any negative thoughts to enter your mind because doubt begins in the mind, and if you can keep it out of the mind you can keep it out of the heart. 2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we TAKE CAPTIVE every thought to make it obedient to Christ!

I struggle big time with doubt and negative thoughts, and I have been praying with hope that God will answer my prayer sometime in the future, and not with faith that he has already answered my prayers even though I can not see the physical evidence. So this is one of the scriptures that I will be praying with: Psalms 113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, comments and support! I love you guys!!