Turn with me to Romans, the eighth chapter, second occasion. Looking unto the Lord and hearing from the word of the Lord and God speaking in his word and preaching of it, that portion in verses 18 through 25. I'll read the eighth chapter. Hear now God's word. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself also beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. May the Lord be pleased now to accompany the preaching of this word with a power from on high. the work of his spirit. The Apostle Paul says elsewhere when he writes unto the church in Thessalonica, he speaks of the Christian as having upon his head as a helmet the hope of salvation. The hope of salvation. And in this present time, in this now age, in this bloody conflict, in this suffering and tribulation, and all that assaults your soul, and everything that assaults your heart, and everything that would disquiet you, destroy you, discourage you, or cast you down. This is a powerful defensive weapon, protective piece of armor, the hope of salvation. The believer suffers all things in hope, not as those without hope, but in hope, waiting patiently for their state of glory. This is what the Apostle speaks of here in Romans 8. Before those verses we've been considering the glorious truth that indeed if children of God, then we are heirs. Heirs of God. And thus, not only that, but joint heirs with Christ. And then he makes this statement. If so be, that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. And so it is of a fact that those that are in Christ suffer with him. And they suffer in a different manner in which the world does. We'll see some of this when we look at this hopeful waiting. Hopeful waiting is, we could say, the main theme of that reckoning which he gives in verse 18 and then 19 through 25. Three times it repeats the same concept, the same word. In verse 19, the earnest expectation of the creature awaiteth. Earnest expectation is one word and so it adds emphasis to this Waiting, it's an eager waiting. Which, by the way, on the side, if they were waiting for annihilation, if there was not to be a new heavens and new earth even in the physical state of which has begun now in its taste of glory, they would not be so eagerly waiting. Albeit this is personification. But waiteth. And verse 23. But ourselves also, we are said to be waiting. And then verse 25 also states something about the type of waiting. We, with patience, wait. And so we have before us the revelation of God concerning this now time and the condition and state of the believer and their hopeful waiting. I feel like I'm, as a child, speaking to adults and perhaps my superiors because I am yet so learning what it means to wait on the Lord. Here's the heart and depth of experimental religion. And I know so little of it yet, but I will preach the word and trust that the Lord God will apply it to heart and soul. and that we may all grow in the maturity of learning more and more what it means experimentally, not just speaking of waiting, but to where our whole soul and our heart is brought into that hopeful waiting of the Lord. For indeed, you know that you have a taste of the present suffering. But may you indeed know the power of God in a hopeful waiting that far outseeds it. And so we will consider hopeful waiting. We'll look at three aspects of this waiting, of what it is like. Not all waiting is the same. The waiting the world has, no. We'll consider a watchful waiting. First, a watchful waiting. And second, a patient waiting. And then third, an eager waiting. Watchful, patient, eager. What kind of waiting is this? What does this mean? Waiting. Well, first, Concerning this hopeful waiting, your hopeful waiting is to be an alert watching. It is a watchful waiting. Your hopeful waiting, of which this text speaks much about hope, and that characterizes that waiting. This hopeful waiting is to be an alert watching. So one difference we see between the Christian's waiting And the world is that this is not a fateful resignation. It's not a mere resignation to, as it were, nothing but suffering. Oh yes, we submit. And even in the midst of sufferings may give thanks. But it is not that idea of karma or fate that the world has in its idea of waiting. And this hopeful alert watching, waiting, it's not sleeping. Psalm 46 comes to mind. The mountains fall into the heart of the sea. How does it end? Be still. There's a lot of labor in that, isn't there? Mountains are falling about you. Or 10,000 coming against you. Or the world, the flesh, and the devil. Be still. Not sleeping. Sleeping person is unaware. The Lord watches over. He never slumbers. This waiting is not, as it were, a sleep, a sleeping. It's a militant waiting, isn't it? We are the church militant. It's similar, perhaps, to the military commanders, that old phrase in our early American history. Don't fire until you see the white of their eyes. That took some... Be still, my soul. Be silent. There's an action. It's not a sleeping. It's not like waiting for the alarm to go off and then, well, like you're trying to get back to sleep because you woke up too early. Not that way. No. It's an alert watching and so this Watchful waiting. It's to also watch and pray. What is it to wait on the Lord? What is this waiting? It is to watch and pray. The Apostle Paul, again to the church in Thessalonica says, therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. The watchman on the gate He is not asleep, he's watchful, he's waiting, looking. We find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, accompanied by disciples. Then he takes three of them, Peter, James, and John, and he goes off by himself to pray. And he tells them, tarry ye here and watch with me. He comes back, he finds them asleep. It's not a sleep for waiting. And so he exhorts them, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. to the saints scattered abroad in the dispersion, the persecution in Jerusalem. The saints were scattered abroad in Peter's day and they suffered much. And he speaks of their sufferings and he gives his exhortation unto them to be sober and watch unto prayer. It's a watchful waiting. So a characteristic of your life is a watching and prayer, waiting on the Lord at the throne of grace. As one is in the outer court of a king and he's waiting, or those attendants about him in this prayer, we are waiting on the Lord, and a watchful prayer is a waiting on the Lord. Another aspect of this watchful waiting is to wait upon the Lord in the searching of the scriptures. We have cried out to the Lord. We know something of the present experience of suffering. Well, to wait on the Lord is to be those searching the scriptures to hear what the Lord would say in this waiting time. And we wait for that answer from the Lord. I'm not talking about some charismatic, still small voice, but the Lord does speak by the illuminating word of his spirit. to individual souls. This is a fact and this is a truth. And so to those in Thessalonica who are undergoing much suffering and persecution, he remarks on that in verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. They're suffering much. They're in the midst of persecution and especially from the Jews, those who claim to be God's people. Paul encourages them in verse 10. What to do then in this time? He encourages them, quote, to wait for his son, that is God's son, his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. This is a word to meditate upon. And there is an emphasis on how they had received the word. and the following fruit. He says, our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. And then he says, from you sounded out the word of the Lord, these things all to go together. There are those that receive the word of the Lord and in the midst of this persecution and suffering to wait for his son from heaven and obviously in the reception of the word of God as it came to them and the power of the Holy Ghost and now it sounds out from them their testimony to God and his work in their midst that in the present suffering they have a hope and watching that the world knows not of. or waiting just to be an alert, watching, searching the scriptures. Or as Peter says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hopeful to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And your mind to be gird up is that mind which is transformed and transformed by the very word of God and renewing power of the Holy Spirit as we not only watch in prayer, watch and looking into his word. And so quite obviously then you're waiting for glory as a watchful waiting for the glory to be revealed is to be a wise, diligent, circumspect use of the means of grace. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of this. You see, they wanted a way, perhaps, with all the flesh and bang of the world. Some of the pomp and honor and wisdom of the Greeks, or without the cross, or the wisdom of men, or those things that the eye could see so well. speaking in tongues, so on and so forth, and on it goes, and signs, but he exhorts them in the opening words. In his first letter to them, he says, see that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which indeed includes more than what we have just said, but not less. Difficult to have the fruit of the spirit when you're not reading the words of the spirit so on and so forth No gift Making wise use of the means of grace those gifts in word and prayer So I ask you my friend is regarding this watchful waiting. Are you slack? In your time of the word and prayer I It's very easy to become perfunctory. To check off a certain amount of verses or chapters, read those, got that done. Or to go into it with such cold hearts. Or before you ever read the word, do you pray unto the Lord to bless the word unto your never dying soul? Are you spending time in your closet seeking the face of God because His countenance is your health and your life. Or are you sleeping? Not using and despising the means of grace but not making use of them. I encourage you to wake up and wait on the Lord in word and prayer and you will rise up and He will raise you up and you will yet have cause to praise Him. There is no magic formula. You're not going to find the special anointed pastor, no matter how far sermon audio takes you to the ends of the world, to somehow I found the right guy. This is the one, the only one. Oh, you've made a Messiah of him. The activity of a watchful waiting on the Lord in word and prayer. And nothing, well, even my prayer mentioned how particular and special corporate worship is. And we encourage you in family worship, it cannot replace your time alone with the Lord for waiting on the Lord and pouring out your heart and soul unto the Lord and reading the word of God and not just reading it, but meditating on it. Meditating and praying on it until you find that you are moving from, yes, I'm groaning, but now I have this watchful expectation. This is a waiting. Your hopeful waiting is to be an alert, watching, and second, your hopeful waiting is to be a patient waiting. Your hope for waiting is to be a patient waiting. Hope helps you, in fact is substantive for you to be patient while waiting for glory. This is what I'm sure we all need to learn more of in patient waiting. Had a conversation with that woman of my love just this past week. In my nature, if there is a bear stalking me in the woods, I would rather charge it and just get it over with one way or another than waiting to see what would happen. That's my nature. They say sometimes maybe you don't appear to be that way. And that's because the Lord has helped me mortify much of this impatient heart, a patient waiting. Forgive me for giving any biographical information regarding that, but just to emphasize that this is experimental religion. There are many people countless people that would take the name of God and the promises of God and the Word of God. Lord, did we not incite off great accomplishments? I never knew you. And there are strangers to the soul work, to the soul work of the Lord in bringing unto our souls. David speaking to his souls. It's a Patient waiting. Verse 25. We do not see it. But if we hope for that we see not. Because he says if we see it, why do we hope for it? We see it, we have it. Verse 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience. Wait for it, a hopeful, patient waiting. Hope is an anchor for your soul in Christ. It's an anchor. Raya of Hebrews declares this unto us in the sixth chapter in verse 19. A ship without an anchor in the midst of trouble, trial, and tribulation? No. He says in verse 19 of that sixth chapter, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." That's a word of stability and patience and a firmness in the midst of trial and tribulation, which hope, the immutability of God's promise in the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began in Christ, who is our hope. And hope is an anchor for your soul. Notice verse 24 of our text in Romans 8, for we are saved by hope. Now, if you've studied your scripture as much, or especially in the realm of justification, immediately you'll be, well, I thought we were saved by faith. And you are. The instrumentality of faith. And speaking of sleeping, wake up. Wake up and wake him up. Word will profit you nothing if you sleep. Saved by hope. We are saved by the instrumentality of faith. Well, what does he mean? Well, I would take my cue from what the apostle tells us in Romans chapter 4. Look back at Romans 4, find my, yes, verse 18 of Abraham. He's our example, isn't he? Of Abraham who against hope, believed in hope. Now it's not saying he believed in something. It gives a description of the characteristic of his belief and his faith. And so some take Romans 8.25, saved by hope, as that hopeful aspect and activity which is conjoined with faith, which certainly ties into the passage. But that can't be what it means in Romans 4. Against hope, in hope, or contrasted, an in is like a pawn and it's not instrumental like by. What does that mean? If it refers to an action of the soul, against action of inaction, no. Against any hope in the world. or the flesh. He declares that explicitly in that chapter. Against any hope that is the object of hope, he found no hope. And against any hope in the world or the flesh, against that kind of hope, and upon or in hope. In hope? The activity of hope? No, the object of hope. A hope not based but against but the flesh, and contrary even to the flesh, and that my heart, my flesh may fail me. And the object of hope, of hope, that is God. And so the apostle Paul twice refers to Christ, our hope. And so I take this as referring by hope. You're saved by hope. Obviously, the activity of hoping is involved here. But I do believe it is that object of hope upon which we wait. Hope is an anchor for your soul in Christ. I ask you, where is your hope anchored? Here in the world? Tossed to and fro? Toss a small anchor out onto a sandbar when the storms rage and you're surprised? No, Jesus Christ is the forerunner. He's entered into the veil. Apostle says we have as an anchor of the soul, this hope. which entereth into the veil. Your hope is in Christ, and it's anchored onto another shore, and you're tethered to another place, just as he says is your citizenship, so is your hope. This is why everything that your eyes see can perish and fall away. This is why the world, the entire world, and you be the only one that they can come against you, and your own heart and flesh, they can fail you. But your hope does not lie there. It's anchored up into the heavens. It's in Christ. Keeps you from being tossed to and fro. We find the ship the Apostle Paul was in dropped four anchors in the night. Sea anchors and different types of anchors. They dropped them in the night. They feared why? They feared if they didn't do so, they were going to dash against the rocks. They had to stabilize. There are those that make shipwreck of their faith. But if you have your hope anchored in Christ, in the veil, you'll never make shipwreck. You'll never be dashed against the rocks. You'll reach the safe harbor where your hope is anchored above in Christ. waiting because you have grounds to be patient and anger for your soul. So be steadfast in patience while looking forward to glory. Be content to wait for the fullness of your inheritance in the midst of suffering. As yours is not a sleepy waiting, nor is it fretful, anxious waiting. It is a steadfast patience in the midst of trial. And so the apostle says, with patience, wait for it. Interesting word, patience, in relating here to waiting. Perhaps you're familiar with it, a word of abiding but under. There's a sense in which the Christian and the visible church, or those saved now, are in the ark with Noah. But there's also a sense that that is as much a picture of future glory as well. But this patience, it doesn't mean, as it were, rising above the suffering. Or like some philosophies of the world to say, you're suffering. It's only an illusion. Or you're suffering. is part of the yin and the yang, the black and the white. Or you're suffering and some Christians treat it so that they would rebuke those that weep and will not weep with those that weep. What sufferings of Christ? What cross of Christ? You can fill a stadium full of people preaching all about blessing and so on and so forth, but the cross, This is an abiding under, like the grape, under the foot. When does the juice come out? How is that sweet wine made? Grape's crushed. Now you can take a fool and grind him in a mortar and pestle. That's, you know, the stone and the pestle, crush it up. Do the same thing with a hammer on concrete, and what do you have? Nothing but a stench and foolishness left. But what happens when you take a spice, and then you take it under the pressure putting it under and abiding under, a sweet ointment comes forth, a sweet smell and savor does of it. Never Christ was so lovely as when he was also in his greatest suffering. We find him at times not giving a word to Pilate. Find him not speaking to Herod. We find him when he's walking through the street and carrying his cross, bearing the top piece, or shortly thereafter, bloodied, shamed by the world. Now, it says he turns, and he looks, and he speaks. to those women who are weeping and suffering. Oh, that ointment of grace, thy name is as an ointment poured forth. And so you must be, as it were, crushed or bruised, not in the sense of Christ crushing or breaking the bruised reed. He knows, we know that. See, this is our confidence. We know that he will not cause you to suffer or be tempted of that which you're able. But the ointment of grace and the hopeful waiting comes out most fully in that bearing under, and that's patience. Patience implies suffering. If you already have it, why are you waiting for it? If there's no suffering, where's the patience? No, it is a patient waiting, and Christ is with you in the midst of it. Suffering with him, and he with you. It's not the kind of patience the world has in mere resignation, but that hopeful, patient waiting. There's a third element here. been a watchful waiting, a patient waiting, and your hopeful waiting is to be an eager waiting, an eagerness to it. The earnest expectation of the creation serves as an encouragement for you to look forward to the glory. We have these words, the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Not just a hopeful attitude, but that hope of glory and the hope of the outcome and that which would occur. And the creature there, all of creation, not by the way, Referring to all of creation, we're not referring to, as it were here, the fallen angels. We're not referring here to the unconverted. We're referring here to those that inanimate, or not inanimate, irrational creation, they all wait. They're waiting for something and they're given here as an encouragement unto us to look forward to the glory of a new creation. The earnest expectation of the creation serves as an encouragement for us. Some may say if the creation so waits and yearns. with eager expectation and anticipation for that revelation and the glorious revelation of the sons of God and when Jesus Christ comes to be glorified in his saints, how much more so you. But I think it's more of an encouragement than a and add on to, your waiting is to be in eager anticipation for the consummation of all things in Christ. You see, it's the believer that eagerly awaits for the fullness of redemption. As he says, ourselves also, which selves is he referring to? Who is this we? It is we, as he says, which have the first fruits of the spirit. in verse 23, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. We wait. We wait eagerly. We wait expectantly. We wait. We wait in hope and we wait in patience. waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. We have the spirit of adoption because of the act of adoption, the fullness thereof, the redemption and glory. Eagerly awaiting the consummation of all things. Now, if you're an unconverted person, and if you die in that state, we know then you're not elect, you're an Esau. But if you're an unconverted person, what expectation do you have when Christ returns? Would you eagerly await it? Does the person on death row, if they have some of their right mind left, eagerly await their death? Oh, they wouldn't. They knew it was just an eternity of suffering, but not so with those that have the first fruits of the spirit, meaning the fullness to come in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so three times the apostle Paul speaks of this eager anticipation of waiting in looking for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3 verse 20. For our conversation is in heaven, that is our daily walk, our Life, as it were, is in heaven. From whence also we look for a Savior. It's the same word translated patience, or not patience, waiting. Waiting, we wait. It has that idea of looking and waiting with eagerness. Or again, Hebrews, the ninth chapter, speaks of an eagerness and waiting. 9, Hebrews 9 and verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. See, this waiting is an eagerness looking unto something to be brought unto us, for us to be brought unto. And then an eager waiting and looking for Christ's appearing as he does so in Titus, a similar term. looking for that blessed hope. Titus 2 and verse 13 see tying these things together just as he did in Romans 8 looking for that blessed hope. which is, or and, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Your wedding day is that type of waiting. You're eagerly waiting like someone waiting for that wedding day to arrive. Your bridegroom is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ. See, you're not waiting for judgment in hell. You're not waiting for what you do according to the broken covenant of works. You're eagerly, with anticipation, waiting for your bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Or you're eager waiting as like a runner in the race. Like a strong man that runs a race. One that is unable to run, but it applies spiritually to all Christians. The anticipation and eagerness for that gun to go off and how many times the one that's so eager He has a gun goes off and goes off a second time because you have what's called a false start. He jumped off the blocks a little too quick. He was so ready and eager. Eager for what? Eager to press on. Eager to reach the finish line. Every bone and every sinew and muscle in his body, as it were, is quivering with this excitement and this eagerness. And this is what the Apostle Paul tells us. He tells us that we run a race, doesn't he? We run a race, we press toward the mark. And I've pointed out many times before, this is not, as it were, a race on an indoor track in some air-conditioned or heated building or on that rubberized-type material that seems to bounce you along as you go. My friends, this is a race in the midst of the world. This is a race that is uphill. quite often. And then when it's downhill, it can be very treacherous and more treacherous even, where your foot gets caught in a root or whatever the case may be. And it's a race. Wild animals, there's the elements of the world. Is it Sub-Zero? You run on. There you are in the Iditarod. Is it boiling hot? We have those races now across hundreds of miles of desert. This is not some race, even what you're clothed and what the world sees is just these wonderful or beautiful looking outfits or uniforms. The world sees you clothed in rags, but you run on. That's perseverance, and it's a race because, as Paul says, or the writer of Hebrews, whichever your view is, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, pressing towards that prize of the high calling in Jesus Christ. And so an eager, eager waiting for that return. Hope draws the Christian ever forward while securing him from being tossed to and fro. Oppressed? A day will come when you will have full dominion. Your honor laid in the dust now? You wait a day in which you will be crowned in glory. made in the likeness of the Savior. Struggling in poverty? You have a treasure stored up. In eternal life, what would a man give who has multi-billions of dollars on his dying bed if he knew for certain that if he gave it all up, instead of going to hell, this last breath And he'd probably like to wait to his last breath. No, while here I'll keep my multi-billion, but at my last breath, I just give it all up to be in heaven. We see these things in scripture, don't we? Treasure groaning under the remnant of corruption. The text tells you that glorious liberty and a glorious freedom awaits you. Shamed of the spots on your garment? One day, not only having the imputed righteousness of Christ, and not only having, as it were, that progressive sanctification, now you will have that perfect, spotless garment of the righteous glory of Jesus Christ. Weary in battle? Perfect rest is before you. Till then, wait, fight, stand. Eyes strained looking for the Savior. My eyes fail me, the psalmist says. One day you will see him face to face. Have your tears been your meat day and night? You have now a meat to eat that the world knows not of. And glory awaits. a hopeful waiting, a watchful waiting, a patient waiting, and an eager waiting. And as the psalmist says unto us, and we say to our souls, wait, I say, on the Lord, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Amen.