The Word of God is packed full of promises.  You can't read a single page without finding them.  And if there's one thing I see and know, it is the promise of morning after night, life after death, freedom after captivity, healing after pain, and joy after sorrow.

It's everywhere in God's Word!

If we just wait and hope, believe and trust long enough, the seasons must change.  To everything there is a season, and the seasons must turn over.

I was reading in Jeremiah yesterday and I just couldn't get away from this truth.  Everywhere I looked it was jumping off the page:

"Thus say the Lord:  Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord; and your children shall return from the enemy's land.  And there is hope for your future, says the Lord; your children shall come back to their own country." (Jer. 31:16-17)

"For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:  Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased yet again in this land....Alas, Lord God!  Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm!  There is nothing too hard or too wonderful for You - " (Jer. 32:15, 17)

"Behold, [in the future restored Jerusalem] I will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace (prosperity, security, stability) and truth.  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to be reversed and will rebuild them as they were at first." (Jer. 33:6-7)

"There will be heard again the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord..." (Jer. 33:11)

Since both physical and spiritual seasons were created by the Almighty One in His great wisdom and purpose, my question is this:  first, do we know what we are overcoming or accomplishing in the current season, before it is forever gone?  And second, will our hearts stay soft and faithful as we anticipate the future so that we can recognize when the season has changed and a new window of opportunity has opened up?  Let's face it, there are times when our circumstances seem to drag on forever!  Our focus can become muddied and our faith shaky if we don't stay in a place of constant humility and intimacy before the Lord.  We can quickly and easily become complacent and miss the opportune moment if we get distracted by circumstances or temptations.

I have often heard the first half of Proverbs 13:12 quoted:  "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..."  The second half holds such hope, however:  "...but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life."

I want to dig a little further here.  Below are the Hebrew words and definitions from Strong's Concordance for some of the main words in this verse:

Hope towcheleth, meaning expectation

Deferred mashak, meaning to draw out, to delay, or to stretch out

Heart leb, literally the heart; figuratively used for the feelings, the will, and even the intellect

Sick chalah, a primary root meaning to be rubbed or worn; figuratively, to be weak, sick, afflicted; to cause to grieve, to be wounded, to make prayer, to entreat, to be in travail

The most common understanding of this verse is that when our expectation is delayed, we become physically and emotionally weak and weary; we may even grieve, becoming sick or wounded.  Looking at the Hebrew definition of the work "sick", however, it seems there is a second possibility:  when our expectation is delayed, our heart and will should rise up, causing us to pray, to entreat our Father, and to even travail in the Spirit for a breakthrough.  I believe we have a choice and this can be the difference between our desires being fulfilled unto life, and our becoming weak unto death.

God's desire and aim is victory - from start to finish.  His purpose is never death, but life.  We can allow ourselves to get to a place of disappointment and weariness, however, where our very life seems to be draining away.  We begin to loose hope and even entertain thoughts of stopping.  At this point it is imperative to run back to the Father, by the righteousness of Christ, and receive grace to persevere.  We must stay in the truth of His Word, worshipping at all times, trusting His very nature to bring us into life.

Because of Christ, there is always hope of a greater future than what we now experience.  There is always the possibility of His character and glory filling us to even greater degrees if we obediently continue this journey of knowing Him.

"Let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint." (Galations 6:9, emphasis mine)

"Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds." (Hebrews 12:3)