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St. Paul School of Leadership & Discipleship Lesson 235 - HOPE TAKES PATIENCE— DON’T GIVE UP! (Proverbs: The "Get Smart Book") By Frank Eiklor and the Shalom Team "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12
I love this verse because it calls me to patient waiting for many of God's answers to my prayers—rather than to the "I want it now!" American way of life. There are many ways God uses "deferred hope" to grow us spiritually. We're "saved by hope" (Romans 8:24); that is, trusting Christ without seeing Him until the day we behold His glorious face and our long-kept desire becomes a dream come true.
We must often hang in there through hope after praying for lost loved ones but seeing no positive evidence of change. Or perhaps you feel the Lord's call on your life, but present circumstances keep you tied to your job. Or you long for a godly mate but feel trapped by a lengthening wait - with no hope in sight.
Whatever hope you hold that refuses to materialize, don't blow it by giving up. First, test that "hope" to see if it has a scriptural foundation. For example, you know God wants to save your loved ones. Keep praising until the answer comes. You know He wants to use your life, so let Him start now where you are, and He will move you where you should be.
As to a godly mate, He may give you one in two years or twenty years - or He may satisfy you with such a desire for Him that you need no one else. Perhaps He is sparing you from a puzzling epitaph on a woman's grave: "Lived with her husband for 50 years and died with hope of a better life."
Check out the hopes you harbor deep in your soul. If you sense they receive the Holy Spirit's approval, hold them fast, no matter the test of time. Those hopes will turn out to have been seeds that took time to grow into beautiful trees of life.
My prayer: "Make me like Abraham, oh my Father, who, after receiving your promise, learned to hope on even when all human hope was gone. You came through for him, and I trust You to fulfill Your desires in me." "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1) Related Articles · More Articles Jesus said many would come in His name and deceive the hearts of the simple, sinful and proud. Eastern mysticism and meditation is a big thing in the gullible West. And one day a “world leader” will appear on the scene with the persuasion of a god and the heart of a devil. Jesus warns His children to know the Scriptures, live in obedience to the Father’s will, and stay alert to the signs of the times. They laugh no more. Now God’s description of how He will destroy the old earth and create a
new one makes perfect sense. The splitting of the atom turned many skeptics into believers.
After all, look what man himself is capable of doing with the atom and hydrogen bombs. Now
the fear is that nuclear weapons are being placed in the hands of madmen who wish to annihilate
their enemies. God has blessed man with incredible genius. We stand in awe as we watch men and women in a room full of computers and high-tech instruments guiding and landing spacecraft on distant planets. At that moment, we appear invincible. But then a mammoth tornado comes—or a terrifying hurricane—or rains that flood whole regions and never listen to our shouts to “Stop!”—or the shake that removes from under our feet any confidence or pride we carry, and leaves us numb with hardly enough breath to even utter the paralyzing word “EARTHQUAKE!”. And man is helpless in the face of it all! |
