Sometimes I just have to smile when I think about some of the things that inspire me to write. Today it is the song from Disney’s Cinderella.

A dream is a wish your heart makes,
When you’re fast asleep,
In Dreams you will lose your heartaches,
Whatever you wish for you keep.

Have Faith in your dreams and someday,
Your Rainbow will come smiling through.

No matter how your heart is grievin,
If you keep on believing,
The dream that you wish will come true.

Uhmm, has anyone else besides me found this to NOT be true. Sorry to burst some bubbles out there, but it just doesn’t happen this way. Today I want to take a look at three little words, they are wish, hope, and faith. I believe they will help you to figure out the fact from the fiction so that your dreams really can come true.

The American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, 1828 says the word wish can be defined as having a “strong desire, either for what is or is not supposed to be obtainable”. It goes on to say, “We often wish for what is not obtainable”.

Webster’s (1828) defines the word hope as “a desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable.”

Finally, the word faith is defined as “Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgement that what another states or testifies is the truth.” Once again in the Webster’s 1828.

Now, the word wish was only used in the King James Bible nine times. And even in those uses, it did not mean what that word means to us today. One well known verse is 3 John 2.

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (KJV)

There is a footnote for this word and it says that this word can be translated as pray. It is translated this way in other translations.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers. (Amplified)

Now the word hope is found in the Bible 130 times, while the word faith is used 247 times. Let’s take a look at one well-known verse that contains both these words.

NOW FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)

Hoping for something, does not produce it. It is the blueprint but not the substance. But it is a necessary part of the process of bringing the unseen into the seen.

But when you set your faith on the things God has said in His word, now there is substance to those things you have hoped for.

Let’s take a look at Sarah. She had wished for; she had longed for; she had desired and hoped to have a child. Yet after years of wishing and hoping her arms were still empty. But then God gave her husband a promise. Now her hope and faith had something to work with.

And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac… (Genesis 17:19, KJV)

At first Sarah just laughed it off, but over time, something happened in her heart. That promise from God took root in her heart. She got to know the One Who promised. Suddenly this wasn’t something she just wished for. It was no longer something she just hoped for. She had a blueprint from God. That hope began to take on substance through faith in God.

Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. (Hebrews 11:11, KJV)

Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. (Hebrews 11:11, Amplified)

It was no longer just a dream, a wish and a hope, it was a promise from a faithful God. She believed God. In her heart and in her mind, in her spirit and in her soul she assented to the truth of what God declared, resting on His authority and His veracity, without other evidence. She didn’t need any other evidence, just God’s word. Now, that’s faith!

And that faith in His word became the substance of that which she had hoped for and her arms were no longer empty. Her dream had come true by her faith in God and His word.

…be it unto me according to thy word. (Luke 1:37, KJV)