We use the word hope to mean wishing. I hope it does not rain. There is no substance underneath it, just a preference aimed at an indifferent sky.
Scripture uses the word differently. Biblical hope is closer to certainty deferred. It is not a feeling about the future; it is confidence in a Person who holds it.
That distinction matters enormously in a hard season, because feelings based hope collapses exactly when you need it. Anchor based hope does not require you to feel hopeful. An anchor works while you are being tossed around. That is the entire point of an anchor.
Jeremiah wrote those words to people going into seventy years of exile. It was not a promise that the hard thing would be brief. It was a promise that it was not the end of the story.
You are allowed to feel discouraged and still be anchored.
