A Dream Fulfilled

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,    

but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. 

Proverbs 13:12

Have you ever deeply longed for something that felt out of reach?   There is nothing more unbearable than the disappointment of an unfulfilled expectation or an unkept promise.  Maybe your asking yourself “Why Lord?  Won’t you hear my prayer? ”  Your requests, prayers may be perfectly godly and Christ honoring like  praying your prodigal child comes back home…maybe you’re waiting for your soul mate.  Maybe you are waiting on God for a healing for you or a family member.  Perhaps you have become deeply discouraged during this time of waiting.

Hope postponed grieves the heart…

There is nothing more crushing than the disappointment of a raised expectation.  The satisfaction of hope or its frustration can even affects one’s mental and physical well-being.   The higher the expectation,  the more cutting the frustration of it.  That’s why scripture describes this as making the heart sick or grieving the heart.

I know how that feels first hand.  I’ve experienced the painful long periods of waiting for things I have prayed for, things I knew the Lord had promised me.  Even today, my husband and I are in a season of waiting and hoping.  I’ve learned time and time again over the years that the Lord is not finished with us, even if our hope starts to run thin and our faith starts to waver. The Lord is always doing things below the surface that you cannot see.

A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a beautiful plant.  She was moving and could not take it with her.  It was tall, lush and healthy.  She told me that she’d had it for a few years and it was very easy to take care of…”literally nothing can kill it”.  It really was beautiful.  I was excited to get it and quickly found the perfect place for it.  Well… time went on and slowly one of the two plant shoots began to lose it’s leaves.  I tried watering, not watering, fertilizing, not fertilizing, but nothing helped.  Eventually all the leaves had fallen off leaving an ugly stump like shoot.  I was going to pull it out from the pot cause it looked so ugly, but my husband persuaded me not to cause it might damage the shoot that was still alive and thriving.   So I left it alone.

As time passed,  I noticed a tender green shoot coming out of that dead stump.  It was then I heard the Lord whisper to my heart, “You are relying  too much on what you see and not enough in what I see.  You were so sure that the stump was dead, cause you didn’t see any leaves or growth.  What you didn’t see was the work I was doing inside the stump.  You are seeing your hope and faith in my promise like that stump, dead…but just like I was working things in that plant, so I am working in you…Remember I make all things new and bring the dead to life.”

“Even when I can’t see it Your working, even when I can’t feel it Your working, You never stop, You never stop working…”

Waymaker, Micheal W Smith

Hebrews 11:1 (tlb) says this: What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.  It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we can not see it up ahead.”

Did you get that… what we hope for is waiting for us even though we can not see it up ahead… no matter how long we’ve been waiting, no matter how bleak and impossible things look, God is working even when we don’t see it or feel it.  He is a promise keeper.

but when a dream comes true, life is full and sweet.

Then…nothing is more gratifying than to enjoy that which we have long prayed and waited for: When the desire does comes, when the promise is finally fulfilled,  it not only humbles us, but it puts all the time we spent praying and waiting into the right perspective.  It builds our faith and reaffirms our belief that God is every faithful to His promises.  He makes life full and sweet.

Remember that in His omniscient power, God knows far more than we do about what we need and when we need it. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) provides a powerful reminder:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Next time your heart is aching, remember the Lord never stops working… let hope wash over you.

Until next time