The timing of this study is divine. I was thinking about hope — how different it is from faith.
This blessing reveals God is listening to my questions. He is aware of my thinking and is telling me: yes, hope is the wing of prayer. 🙏
✦ He Answered the Thought
Le was thinking about hope — before opening the book. Then Taylor's chapter arrived: Of the Hope of a Christian. The question was in Le's heart. The answer was in the day's reading. God did not wait for the prayer. He answered the thought.
"O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether."
"Éternel! tu me sondes et tu me connais, tu sais quand je m'assieds et quand je me lève, tu pénètres de loin ma pensée; tu sais quand je marche et quand je me couche, et tu pénètres toutes mes voies. Car la parole n'est pas sur ma langue, que déjà, ô Éternel! tu la connais entièrement."
Psaume 139:1–4 · Louis SegondThe French says tu pénètres de loin ma pensée — You penetrate from afar my thought. From afar. Not when the thought becomes a word. Not when the word becomes a prayer. From afar — while the thought is still forming. Le was thinking about hope. God was already preparing the answer in the day's reading. The timing is not coincidence. The timing is the Presence responding to the thinking of His child. 🙏
"Faith differs from hope in the extension of its object, and in the intention of degree... Faith is of all things revealed, good and bad, rewards and punishments, of things past, present, and to come...
but hope has for its object things only that are good, and fit to be hoped for, future, and concerning ourselves...
For it is infallibly certain that there is heaven for all the godly, and for me among them all, if I do my duty. But that I shall enter into heaven is the object of my hope, not of my faith; and is so sure as it is certain I shall persevere in the ways of God."
✦ Faith Sees All — Hope Sees the Good Ahead
Taylor draws the distinction Le was searching for: faith is broader. Hope is more personal.
Faith covers everything revealed — good and bad, rewards and punishments, past, present, and future. Faith says: God's word is true. All of it.
Hope covers only the good things — future, and concerning ourselves. Hope says: God's good future will be mine. Heaven is real — that is faith. That I shall enter heaven — that is hope.
Le's August 30: I know someday I will look back and understand this transition. The knowing is faith — all things work together for good. The looking forward to the understanding — that is hope. Faith holds the truth. Hope holds the expectation. Both are needed. Both are different. 🙏
✦ Taylor's Five Acts of Hope
"To rely upon God with a confident expectation of his promises: ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made. Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence."
A magazine — a storehouse. An arsenal. Not a single provision but a full supply. Every promise contains within it all the grace needed for the situation the promise addresses. Yesterday's bills of exchange — and today's magazine. The language changes. The truth holds: God's promises are not thin. They are storehouses. 🙏
"To esteem all the danger of an action, and the possibilities of miscarriage, and every cross accident that can intervene, to be no defect on God's part, but either a mercy on his part or a fault on ours; for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence, and ourselves the cause of all mischances. The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious."
When things go wrong — it is not God who failed. Either it is His mercy working through the difficulty, or it is a correction for something in us. Taylor does not allow the third option: that God made a mistake. The hope of a Christian is prudent — it expects difficulty — and religious — it trusts God through it. 🙏
"To rejoice in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadness, knowing that this may work for good, and will, if we be not wanting to our souls. This is a direct act of hope, to look through the cloud, and look for a beam of the light from God; and this is called in Scripture 'rejoicing in tribulation, when the God of hope fills us with all joy in believing.' Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy."
"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
"Bien plus, nous nous glorifions même des afflictions, sachant que l'affliction produit la persévérance, la persévérance la victoire dans l'épreuve, et cette victoire l'espérance. Or, l'espérance ne trompe point, parce que l'amour de Dieu est répandu dans nos cœurs par le Saint-Esprit qui nous a été donné."
Romains 5:3–5 · Louis SegondThe French says l'espérance ne trompe point — hope does not deceive. Hope does not disappoint. The chain is: tribulation → perseverance → character → hope. And the hope at the end of the chain does not deceive — because the love of God has been poured out by the Holy Spirit. 🙏
"Fasting is but as the wing of a bird; but hope is like the wing of an angel, soaring up to heaven, and bears our prayers to the throne of grace. Without hope, it is impossible to pray; but hope makes our prayers reasonable, passionate, and religious; for it relies upon God's promise, or experience, or providence, and story. Prayer is always in proportion to our hope, zealous and affectionate."
✦ The Wing of an Angel
Taylor's image is the entry's crown: hope is the wing of an angel — soaring, bearing the prayers to the throne. Without hope, prayer cannot fly. The bird's wing (fasting) is earthbound in comparison. The angel's wing (hope) reaches heaven.
Prayer is always in proportion to our hope. Small hope — small prayer. Large hope — large prayer. The hope sets the altitude. The prayer rises to meet it. And Le's prayers — from coffee with Roger, from the motorhome, from Lion-sur-Mer — rise on the wings of the hope that has not deceived through the entire transition. 🙏
"Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope, and its last act; and so long as our hope continues, so long we go on in duty and diligence."
The last act of hope is not a single event. It is perseverance. The walk continues because the hope continues. Yesterday Le said: we are walking patiently. Today Taylor says: the walking is the proof that the hope is alive. 🙏
"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil."
"Cette espérance, nous la possédons comme une ancre de l'âme, sûre et solide; elle pénètre au-delà du voile."
Hébreux 6:19 · Louis Segond✦ An Anchor and a Wing
The writer of Hebrews calls hope an anchor. Taylor calls hope a wing. Both are true. The anchor holds the soul steady in the storm. The wing lifts the prayer to the throne. Hope anchors below and soars above — at the same time.
The French says une ancre de l'âme, sûre et solide — an anchor of the soul, sure and solid. Elle pénètre au-delà du voile — it penetrates beyond the veil. The anchor reaches into heaven itself. The hope is not anchored in the earth. It is anchored in the Presence behind the veil — where Christ is. 🙏
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
"Que le Dieu de l'espérance vous remplisse de toute joie et de toute paix dans la foi, pour que vous abondiez en espérance, par la puissance du Saint-Esprit!"
Romains 15:13 · Louis SegondLe Dieu de l'espérance — the God of hope. Not the God who gives hope as a gift from a distance. The God of hope — hope is His nature, His name, His identity. He fills with joy. He fills with peace. And the abounding in hope comes by the power of the Holy Spirit — the same Spirit who answered the thought before it became a prayer. 🙏
"God is listening to my questions. He is aware of my thinking and is telling me: yes, hope is the wing of prayer."
Le · The thought was answered before it became a word · Lion-sur-Mer · NormandyThe Wing of Prayer
Hope is the wing of an angel — soaring, bearing prayers to the throne. Without hope, prayer cannot fly. Prayer is always in proportion to hope.
The Anchor of the Soul
Sure and solid. It penetrates beyond the veil. The anchor reaches into heaven. The pilgrim is held and lifted — grounded and soaring at the same time.
He Answered the Thought
Le was thinking about hope. Taylor's chapter arrived. God did not wait for the prayer. He answered the thinking. The timing is the Presence responding.
Jeremy Taylor on hope. And the Spirit who answered the thought before it became a word.
The divine timing: Le was thinking about hope — how different it is from faith. Then she opened Taylor and found: Of the Hope of a Christian. Psalm 139:2 — You understand my thought afar off. The timing is the Presence of the God who penetrates thoughts from afar and prepares the answer before the asking.
Faith and hope distinguished: Taylor gives Le the clarity she was seeking. Faith covers everything — good and bad, past and future. Hope covers only the good, only the future, only what concerns us. Le's question was answered — not by a pastor, not by a search, but by the day's appointed reading. The Spirit is the teacher.
The five acts as the journal's map: Confident expectation — Le's entire transition. Dangers are no defect on God's part — the testing season. Rejoice through the cloud — all things work together for good. Hope as the wing of prayer — Le's mornings over coffee. Perseverance as the perfection of hope — we are walking patiently. Taylor wrote the five acts four centuries ago. Le has been living them for six months.
Anchor and wing: Hebrews says anchor. Taylor says wing. Both at once. The pilgrim in Lion-sur-Mer is anchored in the Presence beyond the veil — and the prayers rise on the wings of a hope that has not deceived.
Le Dieu de l'espérance: The God of hope. A God whose nature is hope. And the abounding in hope comes by the Holy Spirit — the same Spirit who put the question in Le's heart and the answer in the day's reading. The divine chain: the Spirit asks inside Le. The Spirit answers through the Word. And the God of hope fills the space between with joy and peace. 🙏