“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12 NIV)
Hope is the expectation of good things to come. Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 defines hope well:
“Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.”
To define hope in your life, you have to define what it is you’re expecting to happen. You may be hoping for a relationship to start, or a relationship to end. You may be hoping for a bigger salary, better job or long awaited promotion. Hope may be becoming debt free, or just paying the bills each month. We all are hoping for different things in our lives. Jesus offers a hope to all of us that we can cling to together:
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV)
The hope Jesus gives us is eternal life with Him.
When we place our trust in Jesus, our hope is no longer deferred. He fulfills the longing inside all of us for life eternal. He is our hope. But often we place our hope in the wrong things, when we do, it makes us heart sick.
For many of us, during the coronavirus, we’re realizing we placed our hope in things that are not eternal. We place hope in our finances, that they will provide for us. We place hope in our jobs, that they will always be there for us. We place hope in our health, that we’ll always be healthy. But all of these hopes can be deferred, because all of them can be taken away from us. Some of them have been taken away from us. The coronavirus shut down both of my small businesses almost entirely. But my hope isn’t in my businesses, my hope is in Jesus. He is the one who has provided for me each day. He is the One who has given me good health. He is the one I place my hope in today.
Jesus can be your source of hope in this time of despair. He can be the light in the darkness that leads you through the storm. He’s waiting for you to place your hope in Him. When you do, you won’t be disappointed.
Question of the Day:
Who are you placing your hope in today?
Further Reading: Joshua 19:1-20:9 NIV, Luke 19:28-48 NIV, Psalm 88:1-18 NIV, Proverbs 13:12-14 NIV
