Hope Deferred

Proverbs 13:12 (NIV) "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Hope-a feeling of what one desires will happen Deferred-put off to some later time; delayed; postponed Psalms 90:14 (NIV) "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Satisfy-meet or fulfill(desires, needs, hopes);to meet fully Have you ever woken up in the morning, started your day and realize that something is missing? You can't quite put your finger on it, but something is out of whack. Well, I can't tell you how many times I have experienced that feeling. I wake up, stretch and immediately start putting my day in order. Hubby's up..check, coffees on...check, boys up and going...check,check...the list goes on. Usually half way thru my morning, that gnawing feeling starts up again. I try to quench it with another cup of coffee...but that doesn't work. I continue on in my day and it hits me again. I reach for the chocolate. Although that does make things somewhat better...it still isn't quenched! At this stage in my walk with the Lord, I have recognized this feeling to be my spirit yearning for time with my Heavenly Father. Proverbs 13 talks about our hope being deferred. We first need to recognize what the "hope" is. We have a spiritual hope that is connected with our Heavenly Father thru the Holy Spirit. We have a spiritual craving to be with our creator, God. That hope is our wanting to be filled with His presence, fully filled. Beth Moore says that we have been created with a desire to be full. When that desire is filled with other things such as: food, hobbies, TV, shopping or just our daily agendas, our true spiritual hope has been deferred and the Spirit that is alive and well lets us know. That is why I am such an advocate for morning devotions with the Lord. I know that not everyone is a "morning" person, but that shouldn't drive us away from starting our day with the filling of God's presence. To simply start our day seeking His purpose and surrendering our agenda to His thru prayer and reading the Word, allows us to go into our day full and satisfied. It doesn't have to be hours, just uninterrupted time with Him. Lets look at King David in Psalm 63... Psalm 63:1-2 (KJV) "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You: my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. 2 To see Your power and Your glory, so [as] I have seen Thee in the sanctuary." Notice how King David starts out seeking God. David purposefully pursues the Lord. Some Bible versions say "earnestly" but the King James version says "early will I seek You". I love the way David shows us his great desire to be with his God, "my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You...". Now lets look Davids experience after he has spent time with the Lord. Psalm 63:3-4 says "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name." After we have spent time with God, our whole attitude towards our day is God honoring. We have offered our day to Him and have surrendered our own desires. We have sought His forgiveness of our past sins and have excepted His cleansing and love. We have thanked Him for His great blessings and gifts and thru our praises of who He is we can acknowledged our contentment in Him. We can now go forth prepared for what lies ahead of us.

Psalm 63:5-9 "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth." David tells us how he is feeling at the end of his day. Even tho the enemy has attacked, he is able to sing praises to his God. We can do the same thing. Our days can be filled with surprises, attacks from the enemy and just all around very hard, but because we have sought the presence of the Lord, before our day got started we are able to turn back to Him at the end of the day and know that we were in His Hands.

Jesus also sought his Heavenly Father in the morning. Lets look at Mark 1:35 "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." If Jesus, the Son of God, needed to rise up early to meet with his Father in prayer...how much more than do we?

I know how hard it can be to rise up early and seek time with God. But, I truly believe with all my heart that it makes a huge difference in our day, in our relationships with others, our choices we make through out that day and mostly with our relationship with our God. It's worth the effort!

"Dear Lord, You are our rock and strength. When we grow weary and tired, it is to You we will turn. When our days bring discouragement, draw us to You and restore our faith in You. Let us never forget Your promises and who You are. We give the rest of this day to You for Your glory and purpose. We love you Lord. Amen"

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of it's sorrow; it empties today of its strength" Corrie Ten Boom

"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord" Psalm 31:24 KJV