People who have a bad opinion of God usually don’t have a fluent communication with God. Sure, they’re good people. And they’re praying good prayers. But the reason they don’t succeed in having what God’s Word says is this: they don’t have real, biblical hope; and because of that, they aren’t able to exercise faith.

That’s strong. It’s not cutting “good people” down. But, hope is critical. Hope is “earnest expectation” that God can and will do what He said. It comes before faith. It paves the way for faith. It’s the preparation for faith. Without it, faith can’t emerge. And faith is what makes things happen! (Hebrews 11:1)