In my last post, we looked at the very popular Habakkuk 2:3 and how we very often (well, if you have impatient tendencies like me) need to align our expectations with God's and I want to continue that conversation. Was it fair of me to ask you to continue waiting for that thing you've been praying for, fasting for, and just generally day dreaming of? Well, yes and no. Yes because it's always best to wait on God and no because I'm not God and I don't know what particular situation you're in and whether waiting is what God requires of you. I'm here to give you another perspective so that where you need to get up and move, you do so quickly.
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12
It's a wonderful, blessed thing to have hope for the future and everything it holds. Hope, faith, dreams keep us motivated and alive. They give us energy to go out and tackle the day but what happens when the hope you have in tomorrow is never fulfilled? It becomes a very sad thing and actually makes the heart sick. What's a sick heart? A sick heart doesn't have peace or soundness. It's distracted, unmotivated, dying. I'm sure we can all relate, on some level, to hoping for something and the longer it's taken, we've grown more and more despondent. It's so not a good place to be in and it certainly is not God's will for our hearts to be sick.
So what do we do when our hearts are sick? We go to our healer. There are many things that can defer our hopes; sin, disbelief, doubt. These are all things that require God's help and guidance. The tree of life, as the name suggests, is the complete opposite of sickness. It takes us back to God's original plan in Genesis (2:9) when He created the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. It's what God intended and still intends for us so we must never accept the deferring of our hope because it goes against God's plan.
When Daniel prayed and the Prince of Persia intercepted the answer to Daniel's prayer, that was not God's plan and Daniel kept praying because his hope was being deferred. It wasn't supposed to be so... Review where your hope is; is it still in God? Is there a battle against the fulfilment of your hopes and dreams? Sometimes some battles need to be won in order for us to receive what God has promised us.
I pray for anyone reading this whose hope has been deferred, that the Lord will send the host of heavens to deliver the answers you seek in Jesus name! I pray the desires of your heart are fulfilled according to the will of God for your life and that your longings will be fulfilled according to the will of God for your life. Amen!