Lord, thank You for Your wisdom here today. I’ve missed writing. Help me to write something powerful & effective & from You, always. Holy Spirit fill me in Jesus’ name amen.

I started writing this the past week, but it seems so perfect for today — Valentine’s Day. Our heart is God’s most valuable treasure & is vital to us thriving from day-to-day, so we need to be careful with what it trusts in.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. 

— Proverbs 13

Do you have deferred hope in your life? I know I often do! Scripture talks about guarding our hearts because it is the wellspring of life — “all issues of life flow from it”, the Proverb says.

Where do you & I place our hope? Who or what are you most looking forward to? Because when we hope in passing/changeable things, we encounter an issue when they’re delayed… out of reach… or simply don’t happen. Our hopes become crushed.

Ever been there? I have. Boy have I ever. My husband & I have just been walking through a long season of “hope deferred” in not 1 but many areas of our life. It’s been brutal to be real with you.

Yet when we guard our source of hope, we don’t experience “hope deferred” because we place our hope in the Lord Himself!

This sounds so hard, doesn’t it? What does that even MEAN to place our hope in a PERSON, not an outcome?

A Good Gift Giver

We all want things in life — a good marriage, health, abundant provision, passionate purpose to live for each day, great & uplifting friends, fun, a loving family.

Scripture says the Lord wants to give us good & perfect gifts! There are so many promises from Him to us in His Word… It says He delights in giving us His kingdom — full of righteousness, peace & joy in the Holy Spirit! He grants us new mercies every single morning 🙂 He satisfies us with good things. Goodness & mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. He is always with us — never leaving or forsaking us (no matter what we’re going through). He also says that when we find our delight in Him & seek His kingdom first, He will give us our heart’s desires.

God has so much goodness in store for us. Yet when we become focused on the good gifts instead of the One who gives them to us, we shift our attention (& our heart’s delight) to outcomes, deadlines & blessings. These are conditional at best & very shaky ground for our hearts to build a foundation on.

What if we trusted Him & His timing instead? What if we truly believed Father God would give us all good gifts, when He knows we most need them, instead of “on demand”?

The Key to Keeping Hope Alive

What if we diligently refocused our hearts on the Lord, time with Him, & His presence — instead of on receiving what we want (a husband, child, more money, better job, answers & life direction, our ‘dream home’, & the like)?

How would that change us when we didn’t get what we prayed for right away (or for a long time)? If our hope wasn’t in our list of expectations, would our hearts get broken when disappointment & delay occurred?

I think this is a key to avoiding “Hope Deferred” & a broken heart — guarding what our hope is in!

We can always look forward to wonderful things in our lives… that dream vacation, a great date night with our Hubby, a new blessing (baby!) in the family, a job promotion & more. But when we guard our Hope & orient it on putting our faith in God & His schedule, we don’t stay in a cycle of disappointment & disillusionment. (I’ve been in that cycle numerous times & it’s miserable!)

Could this be a key to “rejoicing always”, as we’re commanded to do? No one said it’s easy, but if we guard our hearts & fixate on His will in our lives instead of ours, it’ll be so much easier to find joy in every day — instead of always waiting for Someday.

Have You Ever?

What do you think? Have you ever hoped for something & had it snatched away — or it always felt out of reach?

I have, many times. It’s a hard, hard place to be & it only ends when our situation changes. It’s so fickle & dependent. It’s in those times when I’ve found it near-impossible to be full of joy & thankful.

Instead, what if I reconsidered what I put my hope in (you, too)? What if we loved God over our dreams? I believe it would enable us to be thankful to the Lord at ALL times — for giving us exactly what we need when we need it — because we trust in Him, not in our desires.

We’d stop being “fair weather” Christians & praise Him whether our circumstances are perfect or not… because they’re always changing.

Thankfully, He is forever the same.

He is an always timely, always generous & always good Father who gives every living thing its food at the proper time.

A Final Thought…

How would having this attitude change us when we DID receive what we wanted?

Instead of us feeling like God owed us each blessing — with an ungrateful attitude that says “finally!” — we’d be overwhelmed with thankfulness that He gave us such a good gift!

Daily placing our hope in Him guards our heart from ingratitude & leaves us in AWE when we do receive His blessings!! We’d view them as a wonderful “cherry on top” of what was already our greatest joy — our daily walk with Him! And when we did receive what we’d been desiring, our hearts would overflow… not from a place of entitlement but from genuine gratitude.

This is how we may feel truly blessed in every season.

Check your heart (like the hilarious comedian John Crist always says)! 😀 And thank God for what He has given you. This will make room for what is yet to be.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
 He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

— Jeremiah 17