Hope Smiling Brightly Before Us

“When dark clouds of trouble hang o’er us And threaten our peace to destroy, There is hope smiling brightly before us, And we know that deliv’rance is nigh. We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness. We’ve proved him in days that are past.” (William Fowler, “We Thank Thee, O God For, A Prophet”). We often describe doubts as clouds. Sometimes these doubts are distant and faint, like wispy, far off cirrus clouds. But sometimes they are huge and towering, big enough to block out the light from the sun and fill the whole sky. Such clouds bring the rain and the hail and the lightning and the thunder. When we have doubts such as these, it is hard to believe that we will survive the onslaught of such a furious storm, or that we will ever see the light again. But the storm will break. The clouds will roll away. Day will come again and bring with it hope smiling brightly before us. We have built our foundation on the rock of our redeemer. We are standing in holy places and will not be moved. We have weathered every cloud of doubt, every storm. The Lord has proved time and time again that He holds our lives in His hands, and no matter how dark and stormy the clouds of doubt are, He will not let go of us. Like clouds, doubts are always temporary. If we remain firm and steadfast and doubt not the Lord nor His goodness, then sooner or later our minds and our hearts will be free once more from doubt and despair and we will be left, at least for a little while, with our perfect brightness of hope to fill our whole souls once more.