How to Find Healing When Hope Is Delayed
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” — Proverbs 13:12
When a desired outcome is delayed or not realized, it can lead to discouragement, sadness, despair, and even a sick nauseating feeling in the heart. But, encouragement from Lamentations 3 shows us that healing begins before the fulfilment.
“I remember wandering around in misery, drinking the poison of bitterness. Whenever I ponder this, my soul fades away within me. Yet there is one ray of hope when I remember this: Yahweh’s tender mercies have no end, and the kindness of his endless love is never exhausted. New, fresh mercies greet me with every sunrise. So wonderfully great is your faithfulness! I tell my soul, “Yahweh is my abundant portion. I need nothing more. So, I will put all my hope in him.”” — Lamentations 3:19-24
Lamentations 3 gives us a real and raw look at what deferred hope feels like: “I remember wandering around in misery, drinking the poison of bitterness…”
This is the sickness of the heart—when despair, grief, or waiting wears us down, and the soul begins to feel sick—and even the thought of the discouragement brings you down, “… Whenever I ponder this, my soul fades away within me.”
But then comes the turn.
“Yet there is one ray of hope when I remember this: Yahweh’s tender mercies have no end, and the kindness of his endless love is never exhausted.”
Even in the darkest season, healing of the heart is discovered when hope is placed in God’s faithfulness.
“New, fresh mercies greet me with every sunrise”
New—fresh—mercies.
Every morning!
Even when we don’t feel it, He is working.
“Yahweh is my abundant portion. I need nothing more. So, I will put all my hope in Him.”, or, “Adonai is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in Him. Adonai is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.” in the TLV
This is not yet the moment of fulfilled desire—but it is the moment your heart begins to heal.
Bathed in the truth of Adonai’s faithfulness, you learn to place your hope in Him alone.
There is healing in the waiting—before the “tree of life” ever blossoms.
So when Proverbs says, “… But longing fulfilled is a tree of life,” we realize it’s more than just a dream coming true—It’s the fruit that grows from a heart made whole—rooted in trust, watered by mercy, and nurtured in the waiting.
Lamentations 3 shows us that healing begins before the fulfillment.
When our hope is in Adonai, even the waiting becomes sacred. And from that place, life begins to grow.
Receive this truth today, and receive healing in your heart right now, in Jesus’ mighty name, as you begin to put your trust and hope in Adonai. He has a plan and purpose for you. He is a good Father, and His mercies endure forever.
