Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: July 29th

THE PERFECTION OF HOPE

Every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. - 1 John 3:3.

What constitutes perfect hope? First, that it shall be certain; and no earthly hope is so. For we all know that there blends with, and shadows the brightness of, every such anticipation an opposite possibility. "It may be; it may not be.’ And when thus " hopes and fears that kindle hope" are blended as "an indistinguishable throng," and we are tossed from one to the other as a shuttlecock between two battledores, there can be no perfection of hope. If my anticipations are set upon contingent things, they must vary with their objects. You cannot build a solid house on a quagmire; you must have rock for that. So, the only perfect hope is that which grasps a perfect certainty. Christian hope ought to be, if I might so say, screwed up to the level of that on which it is fastened. It is a shame that Christian people should be wavering in their anticipations of that which in itself is certain. A sure and steadfast hope is the only perfect hope.

Again, the perfection of hope lies in its being patient, persistent through discouragement, burning bright in the darkness, like a pillar of fire by night; and most of all in its being operative upon life, and contributing to steadfastness of endurance and to energy of effort. This is exactly what the feeble and fluctuating hopes of earth never do. For the more a man is living in anticipation of an uncertain good, the less is he able to fling himself with wholeness of purpose and effort into the duties and enjoyments of the present. But a perfect hope will be the ally and not the darkener of the brightness of the present. And if we hope as we should for that we see not, then shall we with patience wait for it. I fancy that the experience of most men is that the more they indulge in the pleasant, but profitless, amusement of forecasting to themselves future earthly good, the less are they fit for the strenuous work of to-day. To-morrow deceives us when it is an earthly to-morrow. But " every man that hath this hope in Christ," and only the man who has, " purifies himself even as He is pure."

Here, then, is the sort of hope which it is laid upon us Christian people consciously to try to cherish, one which is fixed and certain, one which is the mother of patience and endurance, one which persists through and triumphs over all trouble and sorrow, one which nerves us for effort and opens our eyes to appreciate the blessings of the present, and one which wars against all uncleanness and lifts us up in aspiration and aim towards the purity of Jesus Christ.

Think of the blessedness of living thus, lifted up above all the uncertainties that rack men when they think about to-morrow. Try to realise the blessedness of escaping from the disappointments which come from all earthward-turned expectations, when the radiant bubble bursts, and there is nothing left in our hands but a little dirty soap-suds, as is the case with so many of our fulfilled anticipations of good. Try to realise the blessedness of escaping from that despairing hopelessness that creeps over men as life ebbs away and the years diminish. And remember the buoyant words of the Psalmist, who, because God was his hope, therefore, though he was "old and grey-headed," sang, "I shall hope continually." The brightest blaze of Christian hope may be on the verge of the darkness of the grave.