The Godly have a portion promised them upon their marriage to Christ, but the portion is not paid till the day of their death. The saints are promoted at death to communion with God; they have what they so long hoped for, and prayed for.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture, 1666
The Spirit of God first imparts love; he next inspires hope, and then gives liberty; and that is about the last thing we have in many of our churches.
– Dwight L. Moody –
Faith is a living and unshakable confidence — a belief in God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.
– Martin Luther –
A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory.
– Thomas Brooks –
Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a “wish” (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.
– RC Sproul –
Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit until it permeates all your thoughts and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength. Rejoice that the Lord Jesus has become your strength and your song—He has become your salvation.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called “the rejoicing of hope” (Hebrews 3:6).
– William Gurnall –
Afflictions add to the saints’ glory. The more the diamond is cut, the more it sparkles; the heavier the saints’ cross is, the heavier shall be their crown.
– Thomas Watson –
It was wonderful love that Christ should die for such as we are. What are we? Not only vanity, but enmity. When we were fighting, he was dying; when we had the weapons in our hands, then he had the spear in his side (Romans 5:8).
– Thomas Watson –
from The Lords Supper, 1665