Is There Hope?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?  (Lam 3:38)

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.  I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.  Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."  The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.  Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.  Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope.  Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.  For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.  Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.  (Lam 3:19-32) 

"The story is told that Frederick Douglas, the great slave orator, once said in a mournful speech when things looked dark for his race:-
 

'The white man is against us, governments are against us, the spirit of the times is against us. I see no hope for the colored race. I am full of sadness.'
 
Just then a poor old colored woman rose in the audience, and said, 'Frederick, is God dead?'

My friend, it makes a difference when you count God in.

Now many a young believer is discouraged and disheartened when he realizes this warfare. He begins to think that God has forsaken him, that Christianity is not all that it professes to be. But he should rather regard it as an encouraging sign. No sooner has a soul escaped from his snare than the great Adversary takes steps to ensnare it again. He puts forth all his power to recapture his lost prey. The fiercest attacks are made on the strongest forts, and the fiercer the battle the young believer is called on to wage, the surer evidence it is of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. God will not desert him in his time of need, any more than He deserted His people of old when they were hard pressed by their foes."  (underlining and italics mine; from The Overcoming Life by D.L. Moody)

"Often God seems to place His children in  positions of profound difficulty---leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape; contriving a situation which no human judgement would have permitted, had it
been previously consulted. 

The very cloud conducts them thither.  You may be thus involved at this very hour.  

It does seem perplexing and very serious to the last degree; but it is perfectly right. 

The issue will more than justify Him who has brought you hither.  It is a platform for the display of His almighty grace and power.  

He will not only deliver you, but in doing so He will give you a lesson that you will never forget; and to which, in many a psalm and song in after days, you will revert.  

You will never be able to thank God enough for having done just as He has." --F. B. Meyer.

  Fear ye not, and stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.  Ex. 14:13