KEY SCRIPTURE: Pro 13:12 KJV Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Please read Genesis 29,37, 40

Our key scripture states clearly that a deferred hope or an unfulfilled expectation can make the heart sick. A sick heart is a disappointed person. The Lord calls it a broken heart( Luke 4:18,19). Disappointed from our perspective abounds so much, although in the mind of God, it is not a disappointment. As children of God, we must not allow human failures to break our hearts because they will surely come. The bible is filled with countless cases of failed expectations, but most of them turned the supposed evil treatment into positive responses that became a blessing to themselves and many others.

The first to consider is Jacob, the secondborn of Isaac and Rebecca. He went to stay with Laban, his uncle. He fell in love with Laban’s pretty daughter Rachel, but was promised by Laban to work seven years, after which he could marry her. After these seven years of diligent service, which looked like seven days, Laban deceived him and gave him Leah, explaining that the younger does not marry before the senior. Jacob could have felt disappointed and brokenhearted. He could have put up a fight with Laban. He could also have refused to marry Leah and might have left as a worried, defeated and dejected man, yet according to the scriptures 29:28 KJV” And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.” He went through the ordeal, yet he had what he wanted, his wife, Rachel. Dear brother, life may not give you what you want, but life can not deny you what you patiently strive for. Great achievers became who they are because they overcame great hurdles or trials in life.

The second person who turned his disappointment into victory was Joseph, the first son of Rebeccah. He went to seek the welfare of his own brothers, yet they violently took him, stripped him of his coat, threw him into a pit and later sold him as a slave to some Ishmaelites. Dear brothers, what is more disheartening than this? He was sent to Egypt, sold as a slave to Portipher and finally, Portipher’s wife made sensual advances which he refused. This woman concocted a lie against him, and so he was thrown in the prison dungeon. In the prison, he interpreted a dream to a man who was to be reinstated as the King’s cupbearer. He requested this young man to speak to the king about him, yet he forgot and never made mention until the king had a dream which no one could truly interpret. All these events were a series of disappointments, yet God’s hand was guiding all that was happening. Romans 8:28. Joseph did not allow himself to be discouraged but looked at the bigger picture, God’s hand working with all that was happening. From the prison, he became the second in command of the whole of Egypt, which was the greatest nation in the world then. What would have happened if he had chosen to be sick or broken in his heart? REFUSE to be discouraged and keep fighting for your dreams, for God honours all those who trust and stick to His path of faith, hope, and love

THOUGHT: DISCOURAGEMENT OR NOT TO BE DISCOURAGED IS A CHOICE AND NOT BY CHANCE.

FURTHER STUDIES

Rom 8:28 KJV “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

1Sa 30:6 KJV “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”