13 June

Many a times in life, we are required to wait in order to know the outcome of an occurrence.

The student needs to wait for his/her test result. The job seeker must wait to find out if the interview was successful. The patient must wait to know the details of the doctor’s diagnosis and the results of a medical test. The pregnant mother waits in expectation for 9 months to see the child that is growing in her womb.

In every situation of waiting, there is an expectation.
There is a desire for a particular outcome.
There is hope.

When the outcome is delayed or differs to your expectation, King Solomon observes that it ‘makes the heart sick’.

“The heart is the generator of physical life, it’s also the center of your intellectual and emotional life. And there’s more. In Biblical Hebrew, the heart is where you make choices motivated by your desires.”
– The Bible Project

What a profound impact the condition of our hearts has on the way we live. What a profound impact the outcome of our waiting has on the condition of our hearts. When the desired outcome arrives at the prompt & expected time & season, joy reigns in our being. The impact of hope coming to fruition is described as a ‘tree of life’.

Abundant, full of life, powerful, eternal.

What is something that you’re waiting for? In what ways do you expect this outcome to affect you?
Or perhaps you have received the result of your wait – how is it influencing you?

Father, thank You for the certain hope that we have in Christ. Thank You for fulfilling the hope of a Saviour at the most opportune time and Lord we thank You that Christ is going to return at a fitting time. Lord remind us that the joy, peace and satisfaction that we experience when an earthly desire is fulfilled is a mere shadow of what is to come when we are reunited with You and the pain that we experience when an earthly hope is deferred is just a shadow of how it’d be without the salvation offered by Jesus. Please stir and cultivate in us an instinctive attitude of thankfulness to You irrespective of the circumstance, for You have given us ‘hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure’.

Hope beyond life on earth.

Love You Lord.