Friends' Favorites - Unrelenting Disappointment

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12 NLT

I heard an evangelist make a simple, but profound statement. He said, "Hope is the soil (or seedbed) where faith can grow." It seemed very simple in delivery, but it pierced my soul. And the more I've thought about it, the more profound it becomes to me. For without hope, what happens to our faith?

In the day-to-day grind of things, life often becomes routine for lots of people. Automatic. Wake up, go to work, come home/run errands, eat, then whatever your nighttime schedule may be - go the gym, pay bills, watch TV, kids do homework or go to sports practice - then go to bed. Get up in the morning and start over.

For others, it's wishing they had a job to go to, worrying about the house, wondering what they'll eat or feed the kids or how they'll pay the bills, then go to bed. And they get up in the morning and it starts over.

For some, it's living with daily pain - physical, emotional, spiritual - until it's all they can do just to get through the day until it's time to go to bed. Then they get up in the morning and it starts over.

And for most, there comes a time when hope seems to dry up and blow away, scattered to the four winds along with whatever dreams they had. The Message interprets hope deferred as unrelenting disappointment. It's depressing just reading that, isn't it? It is a subtle weapon of the enemy of our souls! Without hope, there are no dreams. No faith for the desires of our heart that God has promised to give to those who delight in Him (Psalm 37:4).

We must look to God and seek His presence in our daily lives! If we relegate Him to the back burner of our lives behind everything else (or anything else), we aid the enemy in stealing our hope.

Paul tells us in 1st Timothy 1:1, This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus, who gives us hope. And again in chapter 4:10, This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

If you live in a world of unrelenting disappointment and you're heartsick, come to the Jesus for He is Jehovah Rapha, God our Healer.

Prayer:

Father,
            You are our Savior, our Healer, the One who gives us hope. You are our Peace, our Shelter. Our Rock and Strong Tower. Your banner over us is love! Lord, we want to be in Your presence where there is life. Our hearts declare Your Word, “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Until Then

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 21:4 NIV

Job 14:1 tells us, How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! And some days, it's seems like that's all there is. Proverbs 13 acknowledges that Hope deferred makes the heart sick...

But our Promise for Today - no more death or mourning or crying or pain! Can we even imagine that?!? 

Stuart Hamblen wrote a great old hymn titled, Until Then, talking about life and the struggles we endure while on this earth. Great words of wisdom and encouragement, reminding us that "a heartache here is but a stepping stone..." and "this troubled world is not my final home."  And in the chorus, he wrote of what he would do until God called him home. 

"Until then, my heart will go on singing!
Until then, with joy I'll carry on until the day my eyes behold that City - Until the day God calls me home."

1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV cheers us on toward that day with this faithful promise, For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Until then...

Prayer:

Father,
          Let us walk in the light of Your love, forgiving as You have forgiven us. Loving because You first loved us. Looking to the Christ - the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. Help us to follow His example. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen