WHISPERING HOPE
As I sit here today I am remembering that exactly one
year ago I fell and damaged my shoulder, and it has been a year of pain and
surgery, and am now finally coming to the end of this time in my life, this
storm cloud that I have walked through with Jesus. I don’t know what this coming year will hold
for me or for any of us, but we have our hope in Jesus, Praise the Lord!
So many of our fellow believers in Jesus, brothers and
sisters in the Lord, have gone home to be with their Savior recently and in the
last months, and I think of the families who have lost their loved ones and the
wives. But, oh, they have that blessed
hope and know that someday, because of the resurrection of our precious Lord,
their loved ones are home with the Lord and someday they will be reunited again
and what a wonderful day that will be!
The following song, Whispering Hope, came to my memory
recently. I recall attending a Memorial
Service for the husband of a dear friend.
He had been lost on the river and his body was never recovered. This song was her testimony of hope. Hope whispered comforting words to her and
that the sunshine would shine again after the storm had passed.
There is very little information regarding the
circumstances of the writing of “Whispering Hope” other than the fact that the
song was written in 1868. But one thing
is certain, the song was written by prolific songwriter Septimus Winner who
released much of work under the pseudonym, Alice Hawthorne. The text of this song appears to be based on
the scripture from Hebrews 6:19 which refers to the anchor that keeps the soul
steadfast. That anchor is also the
“Whispering Hope” of the Christian.
“That by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. Which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the
veil: whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec” Hebrews 6:18-20.
WHISPERING HOPE
Soft as the voice
of an angel, breathing a lesson unheard, hope with a gently persuasion whispers
her comforting word; wait till the darkness is over, wait till the tempest is
done, hope for the sunshine tomorrow, after the shower is gone.
Refrain:
Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice, making my heart in its
sorrow rejoice.
If in the dusk of
the twilight, dim be the region afar, will not the deepening darkness brighten
the glimmering star? Then when the night
is upon us, why should the heart sink away?
When the dark midnight is over, watch for the breaking of day.
Hope, as an anchor
so steadfast, rends the dark veil for the soul, whither the Master has entered,
robbing the grave of its goal; come then, oh, come, glad fruition, come to my
sad weary heart; come, O Thou blest hope of glory, never, or, never
depart. (Septimus Winner, 1868)
I am so thankful for Jesus and that I belong to Him. I can’t imagine what life would be like
without Him. It would be an empty life,
a life with an eternity without Him and a life without any hope, no glimmer of
light in our darkness. Are you walking
that path? Remember there are many
choices here on earth, but only two choices in eternity, eternal life, or
eternal darkness, lost forever. What
will you choose?
And in our
difficult days, when the clouds cover our sky, we know that behind those clouds
the sun will shine again. And hope is
indeed an anchor of the soul. Hope keeps
our focus on Jesus and on what is in store for each of us who love Jesus. We know our hope is in an eternity forever
with Him. And our hope is in Him
watching us and caring for all our needs as we tread down this road toward
heaven. When the dark midnight of our trials
are over, we look ahead to the breaking of that eternal day, where there will
be no more tears, sorrow, pain, or separation from those we love.
Since Jesus has conquered death, and we look forward to
His soon return, our hopeful hearts look upward. We see the signs around us. It seems our world is falling apart and
darkness abounds. But someday the clouds
will part and our Lord will light up the sky.
And we can cry with the song writer, “come to my sad weary heart; come,
O Thou blest hope of glory.”
“Behold, I show
you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” I
Corinthians 15:51-52.
So, my friends, let His Word whisper hope in your
heart. We have a glad day coming, when
the struggles we go through will all be just a dim memory. And we shall look on His face, and bow in
grateful praise for how far He has brought us, and that we have finally reached
the end of the road. And we may look
back and see how far we have traveled, and that every step brought us closer
and closer to home, all because of our hope in Jesus and what He accomplished
on the cross and His glorious resurrection.
Let Him whisper hope in your heart just now. And you can then look ahead and see the
sunrise just over the hilltop, and heaven awaiting you. It could be today or tomorrow. We don’t know just when He will come back or
when each one of us will go home to be with Him. As I get older, I realize that heaven is just
getting closer. So let that hope reign
in your heart, in the name of Jesus.
In His Name,
Pastor Sharon
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