Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12, English Standard Version

A Quick Exegesis

Proverbs 13:12 powerfully states that we need hope in our lives for our hearts to be healthy, but that’s not all it says. We hear the first part of this verse repeated often, but we rarely look at the second part of the scripture, let alone the whole meaning of the verse.

We can look at the Hebrew transliteration and clearly see the author of this verse is talking about a weak or sick heart where “heart” represents our inner man, mind, or will. Let’s take a quick look at all three of these areas. Our inner man can represent our soul as we exist today with its mind, will, and emotions. Our mind containing our emotions takes us to a complicated place of potential positivity and negativity. Emotions are feelings and they are temporary. Emotions are not who we are, they are fleeting within the scope of eternity. Our will represents our free will which God gave humans to make choices for Him or against Him.

The second part of the verse is very straightforward. A desire is a feeling to want something or want something to happen. God places desires in our hearts that support our calling and purpose. We can also create our own desires from our flesh, which can get us into trouble.

The Tree of Life is now more accessible to us because of what Jesus did. We must believe in and trust Jesus to have access to the Tree of Life. The good news is that Holy Spirit came to us, and He teaches us everything we need to know to mature and grow closer to Father God.

Hope Reimagined

In the entirety of Proverbs 13:12, we can see that a person without hope can become desperate and long for a happy life, identity, and purpose. Without a strong identity in Christ as sons and daughters of God, and an understanding of our calling and purpose, we can have a hard time finding meaning in life.

It is without hope one can become depressed, fearful, and even suicidal.

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation of something happening or trust that a desire will be fulfilled. The thing is, we can trust God. God does what He says He is going to do; He is not a liar. God has made all of us many promises throughout the Bible that we can count on happening. Our Bible is a manual for finding hope, faith, and love.

We need to desire the Word of God, which is Jesus Himself as stated in John 1:1–3 to be set free from negative machinations. Our minds must be on the Word with our faces turned toward God in this season. It’s time to use our righteous and sanctified imaginations to desire the things of God.

I repeat, it is without hope one can become depressed, fearful, and even suicidal.

To have hope, find your calling and your purpose, and walk toward doing them. God will meet you as you walk, and He’ll give you new hope and renewed meaning to live.