6. Devotional: Waiting For Hope

Devotional: Waiting For Hope

Author: George Matheson (1842-1906)

For we through the Spirit wait for the hope 

of righteousness by faith. (Galatians 5:5)

    There are times when things look very dark to me-so dark that I have to wait even for hope. It is bad enough to wait in hope. A long-deferred fulfillment carries its own pain, but to wait for hope, to see no glimmer of a prospect and yet refuse to despair; to have nothing but night before the casement and yet to keep the casement open for possible stars; to have a vacant place in my heart and yet to allow that place to be filled by no inferior presence-that is the grandest patience in the universe. It is Job in the tempest; it is Abraham on the road to Moriah; it is Moses in the desert of Midian; it is the Son of man in the Garden of Gethsemane.

    There is no patience so hard as that which endures, "as seeing him who is invisible"; it is the waiting for hope.

    Thou hast made waiting beautiful; Thou has made patience divine. Thou hast taught us that the Father‵s will may be received just because it is His will. Thou hast revealed to us that a soul may see nothing but sorrow in the cup and yet may refuse to let it go, convinced that the eye of the Father sees further than its own.

    Give me this Divine power of Thine, the power of Gethsemane. Give me the power to wait for hope itself, to look out from the casement where there are no stars. Give me the power, when the very joy that was set before me is gone, to stand unconquered amid the night, and say, "To the eye of my Father it is perhaps shining still." I shall reach the climax of strength when I have learned to wait for hope.

5. Hymn: Someone Cares

Hymn: Someone Cares

Author: John Gowans

(Vocal)

(Music)

1. Do you sometimes feel that no one truly knows you,
    And that no one understands or really cares?
    Through his people, God himself is close beside you,
    And through them he plans to answer all your prayers.

Refrain:

Someone cares, someone cares,

Someone knows your deepest need, your burden shares;

Someone cares, someone cares,

God himself will hear the whisper of your prayers.

2. Ours is not a distant God, remote, unfeeling,
    Who is careless of our loneliness and pain,
    Through the ministry of men he gives his healing,
    In their dedicated hands brings hope again.

4. Hymn: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Hymn: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Author: George Matheson (1842-1906)

(Vocal)

(Music)

(Sheet Music)

1. O Love that wilt not let me go,
    I rest my weary soul in Thee;
    I give Thee back the life I owe,
    That in Thine ocean depths its flow
    May richer, fuller be.

2. O Light that followest all my way,
    I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
    My heart restores its borrowed ray,
    That in Thy sunshine‵s blaze its day
    May brighter, fairer be.

3. O Joy that seekest me through pain,
    I cannot close my heart to Thee;
    I trace the rainbow through the rain,
    And feel the promise is not vain
    That morn shall tearless be.

4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
    I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
    I lay in dust life‵s glory dead,
    And from the ground there blossoms red
    Life that shall endless be.

3. A Quote from A. W. Tozer (10)

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2. A Quote from Oswald Chambers (11)

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1. Hymn: The Sands Of Time Are Sinking

Hymn: The Sands Of Time Are Sinking

Author: Anne Ross Cousin (1824-1906), Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)

(Vocal)

(Music)

(Sheet Music)

1. The sands of time are sinking,
    The dawn of heaven breaks;
    The summer morn I‵ve sighed for,
    The fair, sweet morn awakes
    Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
    But dayspring is at hand,
    And glory, glory dwelleth
    In Immanuel‵s land.

2. O Christ! He is the fountain,
    The deep sweet well of love!
    The streams on earth I‵ve tasted,
    More deep I‵ll drink above;
    There, to an ocean fullness,
    His mercy doth expand,
    And glory, glory dwelleth
    In Immanuel‵s land.

3. Oh, I am my Beloved‵s,
    And my Beloved‵s mine!
    He brings a poor vile sinner
    Into His “house of wine.”
    I stand upon His merit,
    I know no other stand,
    Not e‵en where glory dwelleth
    In Immanuel‵s land.

4. The bride eyes not her garment,
    But her dear bridegroom‵s face
    I will not gaze at glory,
    But on my King of grace.
    Not at the crown He giveth,
    But on His pierced hand,
    The lamb is all the glory
    Of Immanuel‵s land.