Be Still My Soul

1. Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; leave to your God to order and provide; in every change God faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: your best, your heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: your God will undertake to guide the future, as in ages past. Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake; all now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know the Christ who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord, when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow for forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past, all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Our God is Able to Deliver Us

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Daniel 3:16-18

Crooked Things Made Straight

IF I believe in God, in a Being who made me, and fashioned me, and knows my wants and capacities and necessities, because He gave them to me, and who is perfectly good and loving, righteous, and perfectly wise and powerful,--whatever my circumstances inward or outward may be, however thick the darkness which encompasses me, I yet can trust, yea, be assured, that all will be well, that He can draw light out of darkness, and make crooked things straight.

--THOMAS ERSKINE

Wait for Light

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

--PSALMS 130:6

The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

--PSALMS 18:28

A SOUL that is patient waits with calm endurance for light before acting, and in virtue of this calm and patient endurance suffers no pain or anxiety, because the soul possesses herself and waits for light; and when the mind waits patiently for light, sooner or later it is sure to come. Trials of mind affect us more deeply than pains of body, and if we give way to anxiety such trials become troubles, and are immensely increased. But this cannot happen to those patient souls, who feel that they are in the hands of God, and are encircled with His fatherly providence, and that all things are in His disposal. When we see not our way through some trial or difficulty, we have only to look to God, and to wait in patience, and in due time His light will come and guide us. This very attitude of waiting, this very patience of expecting, will dispose the mind to receive, and the will to rightly use, the needful light. Whenever you are perplexed as to what course you should take, if you go blindly into action you will be sure to repent it. Wait for light, wait with patience, and light will not fail you.

--WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE

Surrender

Many things I have tried to grasp, and have lost. That which I have placed in God's hands I still have.

Martin Luther

A Reason for Patience (and Praise)

Blessed be the Lord God, even the God of Israel which only doeth wondrous things.

Psalm 72:18

The Patience of the Saints

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

--PSALMS 37:7

Is it the Lord that shuts me in?

Then I can bear to wait!

No place so dark, no place so poor,

So strong and fast no prisoning door,

Though walled by grievous fate,

But out of it goes fair and broad

An unseen pathway, straight to God,

By which I mount to Thee.

--SUSAN COOLIDGE

WE cannot be useless while we are doing and suffering God's will, whatever it may be found to be. And we can always do that. If we are bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, we are not useless. And we can always do that. If we are increasing in the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, we are not useless. And we can always do that. While we pray we cannot be useless. And we can always do that. God will always find us a work to do, a niche to fill, a place to serve, nay, even a soul to save, when it is His will, and not ours, that we desire to do; and if it should please Him that we should sit still for the rest of our lives, doing nothing else but waiting on Him, and waiting for Him, why should we complain? Here is the patience of the saints.

--ANTHONY W. THOROLD

Companions

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."

St. Augustine

The God of Patience

Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.

That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:5,6

Patience: cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy:—enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting)

Glorify:to render (or esteem) glorious

Two Kinds of Patience

There is enduring patience and waiting patience, both of which must be looked after; to bear evils becomingly, and contentedly to want the good till we are fit for it and it for us, being followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Matthew Henry