What is our hope? What is our sure comfort as we suffer?

Father, as I approach brain surgery this week, I thank You for Your hope and comfort. It is Your gift of hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, offered to me and my brothers and sisters who trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior, who may be reading this today.

This is ours to pray together now:

Father, thank You. For You give me glorious and comforting details of what definitely lies ahead for me on the day You bring me home to live with You, when I inherit the place You’ve already made and prepared for me, as a citizen of heaven.

Thank You for the beautiful descriptions of what it will be like to see my resurrected and ascended Jesus as He is, to see Your face as Jesus has always seen You, and to live in Your holy and glorious presence forever.¹ Stir my heart into deep gratitude and praise today, for this eternal promise is my sustaining comfort and hope…for today.

Through [Jesus Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2 ESV).

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8:24-25 ESV)…

Even so, Lord, quickly come
to thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin.

(“Come, ye thankful people, come,” Alford, H., 1844)

My hope and comfort in Who I belong to

So often, I forget Your gospel-centered promises because I forget who I am as a member of Your royal family. I forget my own identity in Christ as Your daughter, an heir who belongs to Jesus Christ.

All of me. In a sick body that lives in a fallen world.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Cor. 6:19-20 ESV).

And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:23 ESV).

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Rom. 14:7-9 ESV).

There forever purified,
in thy presence to abide:
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

My hope and comfort that You are the powerful King over all and Jesus is my Lord and King

And to him was given dominion
    and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
    should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
    which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
    that shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:14 ESV).

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3 ESV).

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful (Rev. 17:14 ESV).

By His blood, He has saved me, delivered me, rescued me and He is preserving me according to Your perfect will for me to be eternally “free from sorrow, free from sin.” What a glorious gospel gift in…

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Pet. 1:18-19 ESV).

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb. 2:14-15 ESV).

My hope and comfort in Your preserving and sustaining care as I suffer

Every single thing, every tiniest detail like a hair falling from my head, even the shaving of a head for brain surgery and its ugly and painful scars, or hair falling out from chemo, every pain-full moment….it’s always enveloped in this place of Your saving and purifying grace and infinite and perfect love for me as my heavenly Father and my older brother, Jesus. 

Jesus, my Savior says, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (Jn. 6:39 ESV).

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (Jn. 10:28-29 ESV).

God, our Maker, doth provide
for our wants to be supplied:
come to God’s own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

Help me to rest, thankful amid the suffering, my Lord and King Jesus Christ

I can fixate on my earthly suffering or the swirling and escalating darkness around me…and fear easily wells up. I forget I’m already transferred into Your kingdom. So, any pain I might endure on earth? I will be held in the hands of my conquering and all-powerful King who will help me.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures throughout all generations (Ps. 145:13 ESV).

And the kingdom and the dominion

and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven

shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;

this kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,

and all dominions shall serve and obey him (Dan. 7:27 ESV).

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25:33-34 ESV), giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:12-13 ESV).

Help me to rest in the gospel, Your “harvest hope,” strengthened with deepest gratitude to You for all the ways You are always taking care of me, loving and good Father. Even when I don’t understand. Even as I suffer with “unwanted” but “working together for good” things in Your hand, while living on earth, thank You.

Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home:
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.

My hope and comfort because of my Comforter who reminds me of my hope in Christ

By Your indwelling Holy Spirit’s continual work, please help me remember Your compassion to me as Your beloved child and to be humbly, reverently thankful to You, particularly in the testing of this tempting trial.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom. 8:14 ESV) who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Cor. 1:22 ESV).

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28 ESV).

All the world is God’s own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown:
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

Thank You for Your great and precious promises that are my hope and comfort, in life and death

I cling to Your gospel promise of blessing to those who remain steadfast when we are “under trial.” By Your gracious gift of enduring faith and steadfast love toward me, when I have “stood the test,” I “will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” (Jas. 1:12, emphasis added). Hallelujah! 

For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall in that day
all offenses purge away;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in his garner evermore.

“I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him” (Heidelberg Catechism, 1). 

To the praise of Your glory, now and forever, in and through and for my faithful and beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, amen and amen. 

Singing Christ’s Hope without any social media in the rest of 2023

I have cherished so many social media relationships in the last three years of publicly sharing to encourage my suffering sisters in Christ. I praise God that pastors and caregivers have also found it edifying for their own ministries. Social media has become a place of love! 

With this week’s brain surgery, I expect to be physically unable to interact on social media for the rest of 2023 and perhaps beyond. I don’t know, but God does! Praise God, He has completely released me into His perfect care and love…and I will be back on social media when and if He enables me to “live unto him” in that way.

But if you too are suffering and would like to receive automated, emailed “praise interruptions” I’ve already written for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, they are all set to arrive in subscriber emails on Tuesday mornings.

Their accompanying music-therapy-inspired, Christ-exalting worship music playlist gifts already have a special place in the resource library page of my website, for you and me to use, as I recover and as gifts for every precious subscriber.

For this ongoing encouragement in our holiday season, sign up below and it is all yours, with my prayers, in love for Him and for you.

1. Revelation 1:12-18, 21:22-27, 22:3-5 ↩︎