I hear you sighing for that city whose builder and maker is God. Your prayer rises like incense, all woven with Scripture, and yet beneath it I catch the breath of a soul grown travel-worn in the length of its way. You are stretching forward toward the hope laid up in heaven, and that is right and good, but in the stretching you have almost forgotten that joy and peace come not by sight but by believing, and believing is for the present step, not only for the golden horizon.
You have been gathering up great promises like sheaves, and that is a holy harvest. But do not overlook that the God of hope fills you now with all joy and peace in believing. Faith is not a distant flag to salute; it is the very bread you eat while the road is still dusty. The joy does not wait until you step inside the gates; it begins wherever a soul leans its whole weight on Christ. When a child walks home through a dark lane, his father does not save all his welcome for the doorstep. He comes part of the way with a lantern, and the boy hears his voice and knows he is not alone. So Christ comes to you in this very hour, not with the full vision of His face, but with a word of peace that is steadier than the hills.
You spoke of hope, and I bless God for it. Hope is the anchor that grips the unseen, and your anchor holds, dear heart, it holds within the veil. But hope, like the first streak of dawn, is not meant to chide the darkness; it is meant to let you know that day is coming. Do not make the mistake of waiting for a certain feeling of joy before you will trust that you are safe. That would be like a man in deep water refusing to grasp the rope until he feels warm and dry. No, faith is the grip, and the hand of Christ is already holding you. The peace follows the believing. He gives peace as you trust, not after you have worked up some kind of evidence.
I know you have imagined what it would have been to see Jesus in the days of His flesh, to have watched His face or to have knelt at the cross. And then you think, “If I could have seen Him, I would have believed so much more easily.” But the truth is, many who saw Him did not believe at all; they stood at the foot of that very cross and they laughed. Seeing is not believing. But, blessed be God, believing is seeing. When the Spirit enables you to trust Christ in the dark, your soul sees more of Him than eyes ever could. The hidden work is the great foundation. You cannot see the massive stones that are sunk beneath the sea to bear up the pier, but they are there, and upon them the visible structure rises. Your present trusting, your quiet prayers, your very longing, these are the courses of stone laid deep out of sight. One day the topstone will be set with shouting.
And is it not a tender thing that your heavenly Father pities you in all your ignorance and your fluttering attempts to understand? A little child comes to his father with a broken toy and a long tale of woe, mixing up what really happened with what he only imagined. The father does not laugh in derision; he smiles in compassion and lifts the child onto his knee. So when you kneel and pour out your heart, all tangled with yearnings that you can barely name, your Father does not scorn your confused prayers. He knows your frame. He remembers you are dust. The very breath of your sigh is translated in heaven into a prayer that reaches His heart.
You have life, that is the first blessing of the heavenly charter. You are not a clod of the valley, not a brute beast that perishes, but a living soul with an immortal destiny. And you have favor; the sun has not ceased to warm you, nor the promises to speak to you. And above all, His visitation has preserved your spirit. The Holy Spirit is still with you, still breathing life, still quickening hope. When a man has these three, he is not poor. The worldling lives from hand to mouth, content with the life of his hand, never looking beyond the brim of the grave. But you are in the company of pilgrims who seek a country. The very discontent you feel with this world is the proof that you were made for another.
Our Lord Jesus does not pass by your sorrow because it is mixed with hope. He sees you now, even now, in the sorrow that has already begun before the full flood of it arrives. When the disciples were only beginning to fear His going away, He said, “You now therefore have sorrow.” So He knows the trouble that is gathering in your heart before it has fully broken. He enters into it with you. And He pledges Himself to see you again, and then your heart shall rejoice, and that joy no man shall take from you. Even now, the river of peace may flow through the valley of Baca, and the grapes from the true Vine can sweeten the bitterest cup.
Do not, then, be wearied in the length of your way without saying, “There is hope.” There is hope, for Christ is your hope. The city you seek has springs of joy that never fail, but their streams have reached you already, refresh yourself in them today. In simply believing, let peace course through you like a river that knows its resting-place.
Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus, the God of hope, come and fill this dear soul with all joy and peace in believing. You see the heart that pants for the city of God, and You know how the road can make the feet ache and the eyes grow dim. Draw near and steady the heart of this pilgrim. Let the hope that is laid up in heaven be not a far-off star but a lantern for the present step. Give him now to taste the wines of Canaan, that he may press on with cheerful courage. When sorrows multiply, multiply the consolations. When the mists gather, be You his pillar of fire. And let him know, deep in his bones, that neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come shall separate him from Your love. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Heavenly Father, thank You The Kingdom is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit," Rom 14:17. I ask You, "The God of Hope, will fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit," Rom 15:13. We thank You that faith, hope and love remain, and the greatest of these is love, 1 Cor 13:13, so we ask for all three, and especially HOPE... Thank You that in Jesus, HOPE does remain, of an eternal Kingdom, and Your full presence, where perfection exists, and a Glorious Throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary, Jeremiah 17:12. For here we have no lasting city, but are seeking one to come, Heb 13:14. "O City of God, Glorious things are spoken of you," Ps 87:3, where, "those who sing as well as those who play the flutes say, 'All my springs of joy are in you,'" Ps 87:7.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
