The Bible Edge
Random Thoughts of a Spiritual Nature II
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
When you feel sick, nothing is right with the world. Sickness makes one irritable, short tempered, impatient, and many other unkind emotions. When I’m sick it seems that nothing else in the world matters other than how I feel; how selfish, how sad!
There just isn’t much good that can be said about being sick, but there are many kinds of sickness. We too often just think of the physical kind, but there is also mental sickness of all sorts. One type of mental sickness is simply being discouraged because things are not working out like we had hoped for. It’s at times like this that the above verse gives comfort, help, and understanding.
Hoping for something to happen is something that all of God’s children share. We hope for others to come to know Christ as we do. We hope for our ministries to be mightily used of God. We hope for prayers to be answered. We hope for the soon return of our Savior. There are many things we hope for that seem to be delayed, and we begin to wonder if they will ever happen. This waiting for hope to become reality can, and will, lead to a sickness of heart which we sometimes call discouragement.
You may be sick at heart because your hope has not become reality yet, but keep on hoping because it may yet come, and then it will be a tree of life! Keep on hoping!
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
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