Hope in God

From Whispers of His Power by Amy Carmichael...

Strong Consolation (Hebrews 6:18) ... [Dr. Way says this means an] "all prevailing encouragement...[having] the hope of our heart as an anchor on which our soul rides safely, it cannot slip, it cannot break... Some of us are tempted to wonder about our future. We look ahead and imagine and fear. For us there is something especially vvital in this great thought of consolation that is not for today only, but for endless tomorrows. Another word was written surely for any of us who are looking beyond the borders of today: Isaiah 26:3-4 "Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace whose mind (imagination) is stayed on you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Oh, may our hope be set, not on what may be or what we hope will soon end or peaceful resolution or improved circumstances or others hearts and lives changing or any external thing being any different than it is right this moment, but on God, who we know Him to be when we are most near to Him, when we feel at peace with Him, when we read His Word and know it as truth. Let these gifts of experience that He's given each of us who are called by His Name be equally real and vibrant and tangible when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, wrestling with our own wayward and selfish hearts or yearning for something, someone, some change more than we yearn for Him.

Be near, Oh God...draw us near...your nearness is our good...our only good. Shift our hope from persons, places and things to You and You alone.

Let us Hope in God - knowing that it is only this sort of hope that does not ever disappoint. Let us Hope in His goodness, His ability to do the impossible, that He is for us, working ALL things together for our good and the good of those connected to us, that His will is our sanctification, period. Everything else in life is nothing more than a tool, a vehicle a means for holiness. May we see the people around us, our circumstances, what we have and what we lack as such and submit to the pruning and molding and shaping and purifying He wants to do through them.

...for His glory and His Name's sake...Amen!