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Tuesday's Trust
How Do We Have Hope without Despair?
Part Three
The Delight Of Despair
~Elizabeth Haworth
“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.”
It may be that like the apostle John you know Jesus Christ intimately, when suddenly He appears with no familiar characteristic at all, and the only thing you can do is to fall at His feet as dead. There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awfulness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair;
(I)f you are ever to be raised up, it must be by the hand of God.
“He laid His right hand upon me.”
In the midst of the awfulness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. The right hand not of restraint nor of correction nor of chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father.
Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it is ineffable peace and comfort, the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” full of sustaining and comfort and strength.
When once His touch comes, nothing at all can cast you into fear again.
In the midst of all His ascended glory the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, and to say – “Fear not.”
His tenderness is ineffably sweet. Do I know Him like that?
Watch some of the things that strike despair. There is despair in which there is no delight, no horizon, no hope of anything brighter; but the delight of despair comes when I know that “in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” (Romans 7:18)
I delight to know that there is that in me which must fall prostrate before God when He manifests Himself, and if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.
God can do nothing for me until I get to the limit of the possible.
{Some highlights and indentions, mine}
Thank you to Elizabeth Haworth for today's devotional thoughts.
~~~
Yes, often we will find ourselves in a state of despair, but thanks be to our LORD, we do know and believe we have ahead of us, truly, a living hope:
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
~1 Peter 1:3-9
{Some capitalizations, mine}
Devotional: http://www.knowing-jesus.com/the-delight-of-despair/
