Jeremiah 29:11 says God wants to “give us a future and a hope (i.e. an expected end – KJV)”. 
Trying to make sense of this I noticed that NKJV/NLT equate KJV’s “expected end” with “a future and a hope”. But why, what could these mean?
There is surely an end i.e. a future that God has planned for us, but God gives it to us through hope. The future and hope come hand in hand, like the fist to a glove. It is an end that we actively expect, a future that we hope towards. God gives this hope to us. He puts visions of the future He desires for us into our heart and wants us to hope, long and work towards it. This is corroborated in Phillipians 2:13, which tells us that when we walk with God, the desires of our heart and our resulting actions are of Him. Faith’s definition in itself is substantiated in hope (Heb 11:1).
Basically, hoping is a real life and heart activity that God desires of His children. It shows what the true source of our confidence is – God or man. It is fundamental to how He works in our lives. He wants us to believe and confidently ask for the seemingly impossible. Hoping looks foolish to other people because they have not received the revelation that we have. This hope we must cherish no matter how long or what it takes because God controls the time of our lives. Just look at the lives of Joseph/David and the time that passed between the revelation and the manifestation (read my testimonies too). God gave them a revelation for an appointed time, a revelation that spoke of the end and did not prove false. Though it lingered, they waited for it and it certainly came to pass. (Habakkuk 2:2-3). As it was then and is now, hope deferred makes the heart sick but when fulfilled, it is a tree of life (Prov. 13:12).
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- When we choose to trust in God to bring to pass the seemingly impossible, it becomes a testimony to the world of God’s existence, His saving grace and mercy. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord (Ps 40:4). But we must allow ourselves go through the process of waiting on God. Joseph’s experience became a tree of life to all of Egypt, all the world and all His family. He said in Gen 50:20 – “you intended to harm me but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”.
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- Many of us prefer not to hope so that we don’t get disappointed…