WE gain our experiences of God by His gracious ways of deliverance and help in the time of trouble. The more we experience of Him, the more we wish to experience, and herein is good cause for glorying.
Experience works hope—hope in God.
Not hope to be soon out of the storm, though an old sailor knows far better than a young one what a storm is like, and the differing character of the storms. But if we have hope in God, we shall not lose heart in the storm. When David said, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” (1 Sam. 27:11And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. (1 Samuel 27:1)), his experience had not in that hour wrought hope. He would not have gone down to the Philistines for a haven of rest had he hoped still in God, his refuge, his strong tower, at that juncture of his life. He was weary of the constant roughness of the way: Saul and his persecution was too much at that moment for the man after God’s own heart. Yet why was he called the man after God’s own heart?—because he hoped in God. “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy” (Ps. 147:11). The past should
Encourage Us to Hope in God.
Every single gracious way of His is a fresh cause for fresh courage in God. Experiencing His unfailing goodness we sing—
“We’ll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that’s to come.”
Our experience is through what we have learned about God, our hope is in what we know God is. Experience is private property. It cannot be given away. It is like the food we have eaten— part of ourselves. Believers are not so full of hope as they might be. It seems to have been the faith of generations of believers that the special difficulties of each generation are the greatest of all, and time spent in lamentations over difficulties, changed times, depressed souls, and the like, takes a good many hours out of the day’s work! Now, hope springs up out of the heart like water out of a fountain, and if we hope in God we have a good fountain within us, and we shall be more taken up with Him than with the times in which we live, or our own peculiar circumstances.
Hope makes not ashamed! For God cannot fail. The strength of
The Christian’s Hope Is God.
It is a sorry thing in a day of trouble to put confidence in an unfaithful man, or in the day of battle to be watching for allies who come not to the front: but hope in God makes no saint ashamed. Give God a good name in your soul. The mercies of the Lord are from everlasting to everlasting. He abideth faithful, whatever we are, and the more we experience of God, the more hope is worked in us.
Hope in Him makes not ashamed, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, through the Holy Ghost which is given us.
The Comforter Has Come, and Dwells Within the Believer.
He sheds abroad in our hearts God’s love. He suffuses the affections with divine love. This makes the sorrows by the way sweet to the soul, and even a dying bed joyous. What sweet smiles, what heavenly peace, have we seen on the countenances of dying believers.
The love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, not just in our minds. It is very comforting to know by the letter of the Scriptures that our God is unchangeable: but it is sweeter to have the heart filled with His love—His love to us, His own love, because He is love.