Faithbase

Hope is at its highest level when pain is at its peak. Dear friends, hello! Today I wanted to talk about something that just happened but I think is affecting in many ways a lot of us. Have you ever felt dejected because something that you hoped for did not materialize? Well this past Monday I kind of received an unexpected news. For about a year and a half I've been dealing with this one company that wants to open up in Italy ministry for the youth primarily. They are in 102 different countries but they're not in Italy. So they look at my background, they like what they saw, we started negotiating back and forth talking to different boards and as I said after about a year and a half the European director decided well we're going to put Italy on hold for probably another year because it's not a first priority. Ah thanks a lot! So the funny thing is that actually on Sunday the day before the message at church was started by a reading of a scripture in Proverbs that says, hope deferred makes the heart sick but a fulfilled desire is like a tree of life. And it was almost like God was trying to prepare me for the news that was going to come the next day. So I don't think it was coincidental. But let's look at this verse a little more closely because I think that many of us find themselves in this situation where our hearts are actually temporarily crushed. Well that term hope deferred that deferred actually in Hebrews means delayed, protracted, dragged on and it is not an issue of something that is not going to happen. It's just an issue of the timing in which this thing will happen. And we can always think about the situation with Sarah and Abraham and how they took the matter into their own hands and we know the results of that. Or even David himself how many times he says how long O Lord will you forget me? But these delays many times they seem more like a defeat and that's why we take it so heavily. And that's why our heart is crushed. Again in the Hebrew that sick makes the heart sick. That sick is weak, is not healthy. But who wrote this proverb? And why did he write like this? If you remember Solomon is the author not just of this proverb but all of the books of proverbs. What problem can a man have one that receives about 1.2 billion dollars every year in income? What right does he have to complain? And what is he waiting for himself? Obviously I don't think it's a financial issue like it can be with many of us because he was extremely wealthy. I don't think it was a issue of the heart. He wasn't waiting for a partner or somebody to marry because he has 700 wives and 300 concubines. Maybe that was a problem of its own. Actually we should talk about it some other time. But what was it? In my mind what it was is just being a human, being limited. And this limitation that we do feel at times it pushes us to look up at the source that is much bigger, much more powerful than we are. Someone that has a purpose, has a plan, and has a timing that is perfect in our lives. If you recall the prophet Isaiah says that his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. They're much higher than what we can even imagine. But how can we digest this notion when our heart is actually sinking low and our head is down? We don't need more promises that are unfulfilled to cheer us up. Many have hope in a new leadership in this country and we have seen that we're sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. Some have hoped for a vaccine to resolve the pandemic problem and we saw actually the opposite because it's not the answer that we expected. And on the contrary, it brings more discord, more controversy, more division among the people and our hearts continue to weaken. The endemic, the restrictions, the confusion, the control has actually caused in the United States an increment in depression by 28.7%. Perhaps God let certain things happen and not others so that we may refocus, hone in on what is truly important, which is what we have in Him. I think that hope is at its highest level when pain is at its peak. Think of the cross and think of the repercussions and the beauty that came out of that dark, painful event. Or perhaps God doesn't give us an answer to solve the current situation because He wants to give us something different. He wants to give us a permanent solution that leads us to express the maximum of who we are and what we're being created for. In Jeremiah 29, we know that the Lord says, My thoughts are to give you peace, not evil, and to give you a future and a hope. And for this reason, Proverbs 13 doesn't end with the heart that is sick. The sentence continues on saying that the desire that is fulfilled is like a tree of life. A tree that through some challenges, through some waiting has actually sunk those roots deeper and deeper. So it's going to gain more nourishment and it's definitely going to be much more solid. And it will bear fruit, fruit for yourself and fruit for others that can benefit from it. The message to myself and to you is actually, don't give up. Don't lose heart. Don't throw in the towel. Remember what Paul said to the Corinthian church. He said, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. And just think for a moment, out of the 13 epistles that Apostle Paul wrote, seven of them were written while he was in prison. He had all the rights to have a crushed heart, to have hope deferred. There is one promise that is firm and is irrevocable and nobody can take it away from us. For all of us who are his children, one day we will see him face to face. Then as the writer of Hebrew says on chapter 10, verse 23, he said, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And he surely is. And that is my prayer for you and for myself, not just for today, but for the rest of our days. Love you. Catch you next week. Ciao.