“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Anyone over the age of 25 has likely experienced deferred hope. We wait and wait and wait on that “thing” we so desperately desire, and with each passing day that it doesn’t come, our hearts grow sick with disappointment.
The job search, singleness, getting pregnant, praying for an unsaved family member to know the Lord ... these are just a few of the more common experiences we share that require us to wait, to pray, and to continue to hope. But hope can get tough when year after year our family member remains unsaved, or month after month we still can't find a job.
I love what Job — that Old Testament man of sorrows — said: “What strength do I have that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that I should be patient? ... Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me” (6:11,13, emphasis added). Doesn’t Job hit the nail on the head here? We tend to lose hope when we see that we can’t help ourselves in our current situation, when we realize we have absolutely no control.
The realization that we have so very little control in attaining the things we desire most can be frightening, but it can also be freeing. Instead of hoping in what we can do for ourselves, we can put all of our hope in the sovereign God of the universe, who is abounding in goodness and faithfulness. He doesn’t need human means to accomplish His purpose. So while He works and does the impossible, we can be still and know that He is God and we are not.
We’re promised that when we put our hope in God, we won’t be disappointed (Isaiah 49:23). This doesn’t mean we won’t ever experience disappointment — we know we will; hope deferred is a reality we all have to face. But hope deferred is just that — deferred. It’s not permanent. Even if God doesn’t give us the outcome we think we want, He does give us what’s absolutely best. As Elisabeth Elliot said, “The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.”
I think God often makes us wait for those things we're just certain we can't live without so we learn that they ultimately can’t satisfy us — only He can. In the waiting, He teaches us that He alone is enough.
If you're in what feels like an unrelenting seasons of waiting, don't lose heart. "[Our] Father is always working" (John 5:17, NLT).
Father, You know that in this season of waiting my heart can grow sick with deferred hope. Help me to shift my focus off of my own helplessness and on to Your faithfulness.
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