![]() “Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future - it expects it to happen.” In fact, three months after Noël and I returned I received a letter from one of the young women who struggled most it seemed. This is evidently not well known among all the saints - this preaching to yourself - because in Cameroon I recommended it to several as a way of fighting off discouragement, and it seemed quite a new thought to them. We must preach it to ourselves, and preach diligently and forcefully, or we will give way to a downcast and disquieted spirit. Hoping in God does not come naturally for sinners like us. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God!” He called his book The Soul’s Conflict with Itself, because in Psalm 42:5 that is exactly what you have, the soul arguing with itself, preaching to itself. He was called “the sweet dropper” because of how much confidence and joy his sermons caused. Richard Sibbes, one of the great old Puritan preachers of Cambridge who died in 1635, wrote a whole book (175 pages) on Psalm 42:5. A Sermon to Preach to Yourself: Hope in God! Hope in God for I shall again praise him, That’s the message I want all of us to have in mind every week as we leave Bethlehem and enter another week of work. I said I would like to see the words from Psalm 42:5 - Hope in God! Rollin asked me what I would like to see painted on the back side of the north sign that faces the parking lot. When I came to Bethlehem back in the middle of 1980, the signs were repainted to include the name of the new pastor.
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