Proverbs 13:12. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Deep inside our hearts everyone has hopes, things we want to have happen in order to bring us joy and peace. This is not a bad thing at all. God wants us to hope. That’s why God is fundamentally a promise making and promise keeping God. He wants us to want things to happen. In fact, without hope we wouldn’t really have much reason to ever do anything. Why do we do everything we do? Because we hope that in the end it will pay off with glory, joy, beauty, and love – all the transcendent graces of God.
The word deferred here means drawn out, or dragging on. Have you ever thought something was going to happen much sooner than it did?
I should be married by now.
Why am I still not well?
When will I ever be out of debt?
Why won’t my son turn to Christ?
I’m still waiting for them to change.
The psychological effect of this extra-long waiting for things to happen is heart sickness. Disappointment, frustration, anger, sadness. The complete inner man is impacted. The thoughts are confused. The will is exhausted. The emotions are depressed.
But when a desire is fulfilled the complete opposite happens. It’s like being back in the Garden of Eden, eating from a tree of life. Shalom rules the soul and life is good (at least for a moment).
It’s easy to see the two sides of this proverb as two distinct states. Your hope is either deferred, or your desire is fulfilled. But the Christian lives within both sides of this proverb at the same time. Every believer is living with deferred hope. The long, drawn out waiting for Christ to return, for justice to reign, for the presence of God to be with man, for all glory to be fulfilled, and all evil to be destroyed. This is and ought to be making us heart sick to some degree.
Where is the promise of his coming? (1 Peter 3:4)
Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20)
How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? (Psalm 13:1)
At the same time the person who has Christ in them, the hope of glory, is having their desires fulfilled in Christ, by the Spirit, and from the Father. Each day that we are alive in Christ we are eating from his tree of life. His grace. His kindness. His new morning mercies. His steadfast love and faithfulness.
The cross of Christ is our tree of life. And union with his cross is our hope, though deferred, still very much alive. When the things we hope for in this life drag on and on, making us heart sick; we can turn to a greater hope, our hope in Jesus and in a life of eternal glory where all our good desires will come true.
You: What are you hoping for these days? Has it been deferred? Are you heart sick?
You in Christ: How can you let your deferred hopes be swallowed up by a greater hope of Christ’s return?
Christ in you: Are you able to recognize how Christ in you satisfies your deepest desires?
Pray: Jesus, you are my living hope. Be my tree of life today as I wait for your return. Amen.
To Live is Christ 