Dear #PrisonersOfHope
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13 v 12. Hope is expectation of something desired. If the thing you desire is not obtained in the time expected, your heart and soul are grieved and pained by the delay. But when the desire thing finally arrives, it is a tree of life. Your heart and soul are revived and encouraged.
The first part of this Proverb, has to do with waiting. Waiting for something to happen. I don’t know anyone who likes waiting, and yet our lives are largely about waiting. It can be day to day waiting like waiting for a telephone call to be returned, or waiting for something as serious as waiting to get married or waiting to have children. It is difficult to maintain your hope during the discouraging times of waiting.
Can you imagine, waiting to get married. All your childhood friends are married with children. You have served as a bridesmaid so many times but never a bride. Another year passed and you are still waiting. Your cousins a decade younger than you are now on their second or third child. Every time you attend family weddings, you hear comments like “don’t worry, you are the next one down the aisle.” This is the kind of waiting that can make the heartsick.
It is difficult to remain excited when you have experienced disappointment after disappointment. A woman who has experience 4 or 5 miscarriages, will be less excited with her next pregnancy. She’d rather lower her expectations than set herself up for disappointment.
Hope can be a pleasant thought, if you are confident of your desires being fulfilled on time. But it can also be a painful reminder, if you are disappointed with delays or difficulties in obtaining your desires.
The second part of the proverb says “but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” When you have been waiting for something for so long, and it finally comes true, Proverbs 13 v 12 says it is like a tree of life. The tree of life represents never-ending joy and happiness. God cause things to happen at exactly the right time. You and I have to make up our minds that we will not give up until we see our desires fulfilled.
Hannah wanted Samuel so bad that; she was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord, that the priest Eli, thought she was drunk. 1 Samuel 1 v 9 – 14. My question to you is, How Bad Do You Want It? Because death to a dream can cause death to the life you were meant to live.
What is it that used to wake you up in the middle of the night with excitement, but now you can barely get out of bed when you think of it? The thought of it makes you sick. What are the promises of God for your life that you have buried in resentment because of what you perceive as failure or disappointment. Sometimes we mistaken hope deferred for hope denied, and put an expiry date on our dreams.
Even when it looks impossible, when all the odds are against you and it seems permanent, the Creator of the Universe, the Most High God can bring it to pass.
Dare to believe again!
Signed: #RestoredMe