Hope Deferred May Just Bring Surprises!

We are all familiar with the biblical passage made even more famous when it entered into the public arena when Langston Hughes penned the same words:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NLT)

Everyone has within their heart a degree of “hope“. They may not express it as such, but it plays out in our every day lives. At the end of two weeks work we hope to be fairly compensated; when driving the expressway, we hope to make it home: when sitting down in a chair, we hope that it will hold us. I could go on, but you get my drift – innately we all “hope” for something.

There were a group of people in the ancient world when King Ahasuerus reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, that were banding together under under one passion, to overthrow and destroy the Jews that were in their kingdom:

So on March 7 the two decrees of the king were put into effect. On that day, the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but quite the opposite happened. It was the Jews who overpowered their enemies. Esther 9:1(NLT)

After Haman’s evil plot of destroying the Jews was disclosed at a banquet given by Queen Esther, it soon became apparent that that decree which had been notarized by the king, could not be reversed under any circumstance. However, the King advised Mordecai and the Jews to step up to the plate and take the offensive against their enemies! And even though they were surrounded by many, they were surrounded by Him (GOD)!

We can take this same lesson to heart. Everyone is looking for hope for a better tomorrow. When that petition we hoped for, does not occur, we become faint-hearted, timid , frustrated. Yet when we let the Holy Spirit ask to be our leader and guide – we find that there is more victory, more joy, And most of all we may find that that enemy we were worried about may just be getting ready to be kicked out by the Lord of the angel-armies.

Maria