There is nothing we less expect a recompense for than the " patience of hope," but nothing is more precious to God, and nothing more marks a believer's life in the light. If I have got Christ as the spring of my heart, I must expect nothing but conflict down here; but what is there for me up there? " The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." He says, " I make over to you the glory which my Father has given me, I share it with you, I keep hack nothing from you." Have I got it yet? No, I have to wait for it.
There was to be a space between His going up there, and our getting up there. We have got His heart all the way, but the interim is to be a time of suffering, a time of patience. Are you girded up for it? You know you are in the Father; has He not shown a Father's bosom, and love flowing out of it to you? Not saved only, but the greatness of the Father's love bringing me into fellowship with Himself; so that I can say, " I mind heavenly things, my fellowship is with the Father, and the Son in heaven."
Everything comes by permission to search the believer, but if God says, " I have shed my love abroad in your hearts," can Satan take out of a man's heart that love? The character of love is abiding. Some, alas, do turn aside, but what single thing down here can you covet, if looking up in the patience of hope, waiting for Christ's coming?