Daily Huddle - Thu May 14, 2020 When Hope Shows Up

​“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Proverbs 13:12
​
Hope. It's a confident expectation of something good. It’s a desire with a release date. A longing, still unfulfilled, yet anticipated. We all have those don’t we? To be alive is to hope for something. 

But what if you're hoping for the wrong thing?

Could it be possible that the things we desire, or at least the form in which we expect them to come, isn’t what would actually satisfy us?  What if the thing that will satisfy our truest desires, looks so radically different than we expected, that when it shows up, we don't even recognize it?

​When hope shows up, will you see it?

Jeremiah 17:5-6 “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”

To trust means to put confidence in; to put your full weight on. It’s what you believe in and bet on. It’s what you expect to come through for you. Much like you bet on the chair you’re sitting in to hold you up, or expect that the outcome of two plus two will always be four.  We often put our trust (our confident expectation) in things that we think will fulfill our deepest hopes. But putting this trust, this confident belief in the flesh, [that which is carnal, the natural, what we can understand or explain, and own limited definitions of what is “good” and what is not, always results in disappointment. Because if we live putting our weight on our flesh, our desires will always seem unfulfilled. Even if we do get the very thing we wished and waited for, we will always come up feeling like a thirsty plant in a dry desert. When the heart experiences this constant delay and disappointment, it will grow sick, blame God for what seems to be failure, and turn against him. 

But what if God never failed at all?  What if He hasn’t delayed and the promise He's spoken has indeed come to pass just like He said it would!… we’re just too busy waiting for OUR definition of what a good gift should look like to arrive, that we fail to see the gift God is giving in the season we’re in? What if His definition of a “desire fulfilled,” came to us in a form we weren’t expecting so we rejected it? 

The truth is, only the Creator can truly understand the created. God knows our desires, our longings, our hearts better than we do. His definition of "good" for us will always satisfy more than any lesser "good" we've set our hopes on. When we rely on  our own definitions of “good” and “acceptable” we become unable to recognize what was meant to prosper us. 

Jeremiah 17: 7-8 But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. 

Another way of saying trust... is Lordship.

When we put our confidence in the Lord, we are giving him Lordship. Simply put, it’s giving Him the power to call the shots. It means handing over the right to control, but even more important than that, to define. When God is Lord of our life, He is the one who gets to define what is good and pleasing. The good news is, when the one who defines is the one who delivers, then we get to not only live, alive to true prosperity, but we are untouchable to disappointment! 

Isn’t it funny that the one who trusts in the Lord, never has to wait on fulfillment in the first place?  “It’s leaves are always green.” (Key word: ALWAYS! ) Instead of waiting on a tree of life to appear in the form of a desire fulfilled, they become the tree of life - one that never fails to flourish and bear fruit, even in times of drought and heat. 

When we stay close to our Source, lesser hopes, dreams, desires, and expectations become irrelevant.  Why? Because we already have what we need. Every desire is fulfilled by the only one that can truly satisfy. The fulfillment we desire is found in proximity to the water of life. Jesus. 

The one who trusts in the LORD, relying, not only on His timing, but His definition of what is good, no longer find themselves waiting on their package to arrive, tracking every delay, over analyzing its quality when it does come, or evaluating their own personal satisfaction with the gift. The one who trusts in the Lord, has no need to wait, every need and desire is already fulfilled in His presence - every day rain or shine. Proximity to the source is what satisfies every hope, every expectation, and every need - in every season. 

Praying that you will begin to hand over all your hopes, and your trust to the one who knows your heart completely. That you will give over your perceptions of what life should look like, and your definitions of what is good. It starts by surrendering the little things, turning your attention to Him in your time and your thought decisions (PiVAT and PRISM can help) - so that He can lead you to the blessings that He has for you!

​May the Water of Life Himself fill your entire being and turn you into a tree planted in his presence, bearing fruit in every season.

Love  you all,  
Jibby