Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Proverbs 28, Romans 7-8

Giving birth to my stillborn son, Tommy, was a completely different experience than giving birth to my living children, not merely because the physical pain was less, but largely because there was no expectation of joy to come.

It’s hard to watch a mother in obvious pain as she groans and struggles in the pains of labor and childbirth, but the pain she’s experiencing is not without hope. That mother has hope during her pain because she knows that in the end she will hold a precious little bundle of love in her arms.

A few years ago I saw this definition of hope penned on a dry erase board in a friend’s kitchen. “Hope – expectancy with desire.”

Expectation without desire is mere drudgery.
Desire without expectation is just wishful thinking.

Expectation, combined with desire, puts fuel in our tanks and joy in our hearts. Hope enables us to keep pushing forward through the pain.

Dear sisters, hope is found in Christ. He is infinitely more exciting, and infinitely more certain, than any pot of gold you may be wishing for. All of creation is groaning today, but by faith in Christ, everlasting joy is coming. In this world we do indeed have trouble but we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. He has triumphed over sin and death. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you can be fully convinced that you will be raised from the dead, just as Christ was. This is our sure confidence and hope.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
  Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
  Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
  Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
  Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for the HOPE I have in Jesus, Your Son and my Savior.  Lord Jesus, I’m looking forward to Your return with eager expectation and desire. In the meantime, may Your abundant mercy and grace bind my wandering heart to Thee. Amen.