Daily Affirmations - Day 7 - Be Strong, Take Courage, Wait - Comfort in Hope

Day 7: Comfort in hope

We wait in hope for the Lord

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:24-25 – ESV).

The sufferings of the [people of God] strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time!

Indeed the whole creation seems to wait with earnest expectation... There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin.

Yet this deplorable state of the creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in bondage to man's depravity. The miseries of the human race, through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the world is not always to continue as it is...

Sin has been, and is, the guilty cause of all the suffering that exists in the creation of God. It has brought on the woes of earth; it has kindled the flames of hell. As to man, not a tear has been shed, not a groan has been uttered, not a pang has been felt, in body or mind, that has not come from sin.

This is not all; sin is to be looked at as it affects the glory of God. Of this how fearfully regardless are the bulk of mankind! Believers have been brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists rather in hope than in enjoyment.

From this hope they cannot be turned by the vain expectation of finding satisfaction in the things of time and sense. We need patience, our way is rough and long; but He that shall come, will come, though He seems to tarry.

~ Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary ~

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Strength in our weakness,

Hope in our fears,

Shield in our danger,

Joy in our tears;

Friend of the friendless,

Guide to the lost—

Over life’s billow

Tempted and tossed.

Refrain:

Fountain of mercy,

Flowing so free,

Jesus our Savior,

We live but in Thee.

Light in our darkness,

Song in our night,

Star of our morning,

Tranquil and bright;

Home of the homeless,

Balm of the heart,

Calm in our tempest,

Savior, Thou art.

God of creation,

Author of love,

Door of the sheepfold,

Leading above;

Rest in our trials,

Bliss in our pain,

Son of the Father,

Lamb that was slain..

~ Frances J. Crosby ~ pub. 1899

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