Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Every time I would read this verse, I would interpret 'hope deferred' as delayed gratification. I would understand this to mean that if the things that we hope and dream about take a season or more to arrive, we get heart sick.
This is really not the meaning of the verse. There is a difference between the meaning of deferred and delayed. Deferred means to pass or to yield. In a sense 'hope deferred' means to forego the option of hope.
Imagine that you are surrounded by discouragement. I believe that the word of God promises us that out of all the paths that can lead us to discouragement and disappointment, there is always a path of home that leads us to life. To defer hope is to reject this path.
This means that hope is not something that we wait for, it is something that we take hold of. Therefore it is possible to become heart sick by being passive. If hope can be deferred then it can be beheld. Don't expect hope to force itself upon you. It will always be present, but we need to make the choice to wear it.
Faith is what allows us to see the tree of life on the other side of hope. If our vision can be focused of the tree of life in every situation, we can always see hope and choose to follow its path. Being heart sick is not the condition, it is the symptom of the real condition, which is not choosing hope. Choose hope in every situation, for it leads to the tree of life, which is Jesus Christ.
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