Whispers of His Power – SEPTEMBER 21

Rom. 5.5:  And hope maketh not ashamed;  because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

This verse seems clearly to mean that love comes first into our hearts.  Then because love has come we hope, and that hope ‘never disappoints’, as Weymouth puts it.

Experience worketh hope, Romans 5.4 tells us.  And so it does.  But it also worketh fear.  If we have had long experience of the weakness of souls, and seen many a time what seemed a great blaze-up of blessing fizzle out, we do become fearful of hoping too much.

And yet the word stands.  Here it is in Way’s paraphrase (vv. 3-5):  ‘I will go further, and say that we actually exult in such afflictions as ours, knowing as we do that affliction develops unflinching endurance; that endurance develops tested strength, and tested strength develops the habit of hope.  This hope is no delusive one, as is proved by the fact that the brimming river of God’s love has already overflowed into our hearts, on-drawn by His Holy Spirit, which He has given to us.’

oooOOOooo

These words are from ’Whispers of His Power’ a collection of writings that Amy Carmichael wrote for her ‘children’ and others associated with the Dohnavur Fellowship and are Copyright © The Dohnavur Fellowship 1982

Unless otherwise stated, biblical quotations are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The following abbreviations are used to refer to other versions and sources:

BCP:               Book of Common Prayer, the Great Bible of Coverdale

Conybeare:       W. J. Conybeare, The Epistles of Paul (a translation)

Delitzsch:        F. Delitzsch, Notes on Job and the Psalms

Kay:                W. Kay, The Psalms (a translation)

LXX:              The Septuagint

Moffatt:           J. Moffatt, The New Testament: a new translation

Rotherham:      J. B. Rotherham, The Emphasized Bible Revised Version

RV:                 Revised Version

Way:              A. Way, The Letters of St Paul (a translation)

Westcott:        F. Westcott, Notes on the Gospel of St John

Weymouth:      R. F. Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech

Young:            R. Young, A Literal Translation of the Bible

Verses of poetry without quotation marks were written by Amy Carmichael.