Don’t Lose Hope
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)
Today’s Morsel: One of the keys to being a good Christian is to understand that God’s ways and thought aren’t like ours. We can sit in church and hear all the great sermons, get prayed for, told that God can do anything, and He can, and we sit and wait for the answer, but within us that time clock keeps ticking and saying when? And because we are often short with an attitude to wait, we lose hope. We get into the mulligrubs and complain, just like the children of Israel. They waited and complained so much that they couldn’t believe God for anything when they were standing right in the middle of the promise. Solomon said that hope deferred makes the heart sick. Yes, sometimes it is gut wrenching when you are always sick, and no one seems to have the answers and your healing isn’t coming. And yes, it is heart breaking when you keep being let down for a job that you know that you are qualified for. And yes, it does hurt when those you trust to know God’s word, keep telling you that your condition and lack of healing is because you are not trusting God. And yes, it does hurt when you are told that your backslidden child will return, and they don’t seem to be making a move toward God. It can shake your faith to the very core. But let me encourage you. Don’t lose hope. God’s timing is not ours. Ask Abraham and Sarah. So, keep your praise on. Stay in church. And keep testifying of God’s goodness. And always remember what Job said when he was waiting: “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:10-12); “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:25-27) Think on these things for a moment. The woman with the issue of blood, 12 years. The man at the pool of Bethesda, 38 years. The woman bowed over, 18 years. Abraham and Sarah, 25 years. Hanna, who was tormented every year. But they never lost hope, and God came through. You can endure hardness as a good soldier.
Sing: He’ll do it again! He’ll do it again! Just take a look at where you are now, and where you have been. He will come through for you, He’s same now as then; You may not know how, you may not know when, but He’ll do it again.
Thought For Today: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:10-12)
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