The question has been asked, “which is the anchor to the soul, faith or hope?” The answer is hope, for Paul taught of the hope set before us; Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Heb 6:18-19). The metaphor of the anchor is an appropriate one, for hope fixes us where we should be—sure and steadfast in the harbor of true discipleship.
Paul spoke of what happens to church members when they don’t have inspired leadership. They become as children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive (Eph 4:14). Yet, without the anchor of hope, each individual can become just as unstable, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of worldliness, by the sleight of Satan and his cunning craftiness, whereby he lies in wait to deceive. Indeed, the hope of a better world gives us stabilizing perspective as we plod along in what can otherwise be a hopeless and bitter world.
Monte J. Brough
“Ether, as my personal mentor of some years, has helped me understand how hope, which ’cometh of faith, maketh an anchor’ to my soul. It is this hope for a better world that is the foundation of the great plan of happiness. This profound hope…is part of the process of bringing stability into our lives.” (Heroes From the Book of Mormon, p. 193)
Bruce C. Hafen
"One of the blessings of grace along that path is the gift of hope, which is a source of comfort and strength for those who move courageously forward toward the perfecting ideal of the Savior. As put plainly and powerfully by the prophet Jacob, ’Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea…’ (Jacob 4:6-7; emphasis added.)
"…This is the spiritual endowment of hope—of perspective, of patience, of an inner serenity, a sure inner sight, that is ’not weary in well-doing.’ (D&C 64:33.) Such hope is bestowed by the power of the Holy Ghost, ’which Comforter filleth with hope.’ (Moroni 8:26.) It is the hope of which Nephi wrote in explaining the process that follows our entry by baptism into the straight and narrow path: ’Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men.’ (2 Nephi 31:20.)
“It is the hope that Mormon recognized as a sustaining, God-given source of strength in the maturing stages of spiritual development: ’I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord… . My brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.’ (Moroni 7:3-4.) Not perfect, not frantic; not pessimistic and not artificially cheerful. The walk of those who walk with the endowment of hope is ’peaceable.’” (The Broken Heart, p. 183-4)