Hope maketh not ashamed, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Romans 5:5
“Where waiting ends, that is the end of life itself”.
“But what are we waiting for? Aren’t we waiting for the dark and incomprehensible of our life to clear up? Aren’t we waiting for the riddles which we have not yet solved to be explained? Why must some people suffer so shockingly while the rascals always land on their feet ?”
“If something blatantly senseless happens , anywhere; if blind and meaningless chance rules anywhere — in just one spot– then our whole life is only a blind toss of the dice, a soulless interaction between energy and matter. Then there are no more higher thoughts that rule over us, and there’s no God to think anything about it, or to watch lovingly over our life.” Thielicke
We must refer to the song of Zacharias in Luke chapter 1.
“And Zacharias his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought redemption for his people, and raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the house of David his servant; as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began; deliverance from our enemies and out of the hand of all who hate us; to fulfil mercy with our fathers and remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to give us, that, saved out of the hand of our enemies, we should serve him without fear in piety and righteousness before him all our days. ” Luke 1:67-75
My thoughts take me to this, “If hope exists as the ‘incomprehensible becoming clear’, or the riddle of life to be explained, a prophesy of this sort helps. According to Zacharias, redemption avails now, deliverance also. Mercy is fulfilled, a covenant remembered. Saved of enemy hands, we are serving God without fear; in piety and righteousness — all our days. The prophesy stands for our grasping a truth for our comprehending.
Luther’s translation of this prophetic hymn speaks of the heartfelt “compassion of God”
which meets us in the Christmas child and his forerunner, John the Baptist. Here we are told that God has come and revealed his inmost being to us.
This inmost secret of his heart is” love.”
1John 3:1-3 Spells a similar truth:
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. “
The “hope” in this passage consists of apprehending our sonship, and our likeness to Christ, seeing Him as He is. — all in the sphere of love. That love casts out fear, it sees us in a legally ‘righteous’ standing, it proclaims our sanctification as believers NOW. And with the illumination by the Holy Spirit of this hope, we grow in our becoming holy, experientially.
Proverbs 4:18 speaks, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’ 4:19 follows,” The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. “
Folks, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now abideth faith hope and love, the greatest is love.” Love is the fulfilling of the Law. 1 Corinthians 13:12-13
In closing, A quote from Oswald Chambers. “The hope of the Saint is the expectation and certainty of human nature transfigured by faith. …..Hope without faith loses itself in vain speculation , but the hope of the Saints, transfigured by faith, grows not faint , but endures , as seeing him who is invisible.”
Here is another from Chambers. “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading.”
Friends, though we wait and pursue blindly, our expectation, and our seeking will find an end, that is a promise. And our expectation, of His compassion and love, will not be cut off. Its Him.
Love ya
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