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 back 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?