If we read this scripture with this more pointed type of hope in mind, we can see that a person can feel discouraged, depressed, diminished, and otherwise down but still have at least some hope that eternal life may yet be obtained. As the Prince of Egypt main theme song says: “Though hope is frail, it’s hard to kill.”
Despair or hopelessness comes from our own iniquity or the iniquity of others. The reality is iniquity is the only thing that will keep us from eternal life, so if we have despair, either we have sinned, and we know it, or we haven’t sinned, but believe we are unworthy anyway. This kind of deception is iniquity, and can be committed by others or by ourselves.