The writer of Proverbs had an insight into hope that all of us need at some time or another in life. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life—Proverbs 13:12.

How many, oh, how many are the people who have nurtured some hope in their heart only to have it deferred time and again! This word deferred means to be dragged out, prolonged, given some little bit of light only to have it blown out. This weakens the inner man of anyone. It brings grief and seals in sorrow. To conclude it all, it leaves the soul hopeless—until someone, some special One, comes along.

Peter was a person who had his hope deferred. It was making of him a dreadful failure, in his own heart and before the eyes of others. He even knew the Author of hope. He lived very close to Him. But Peter didn’t catch the fire of hope that Jesus brought until after He was crucified and raised from the dead. Then the Holy Spirit came and Peter was transformed. We know that he became the spokesman for the Kingdom of God that day in Jerusalem when he stood before the crowd and explained what had happened in the upper roomwhere he and the others had been gathered. Jesus was gone, but the very Life that had lived in Him had come. It was the Spirit of the living God. The One Who had been the Life of Jesus had begun living in Peter.

I Peter 1:3-5—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... Peter discovered that a living hope could be born in the disciples because of the resurrection of Jesus. As an Apostle, he went on tell that this hope leads us to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. But that wasn’t the end to which this hope was ready to be brought to life in whoever would know the living Lord. Those of us who know Him are kept by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready (prepared) to be revealed in the last time.

DEAR LORD, I lay before You the damage that has come through misguided religious hope. You are my hope! I turn from my disappointment and yield this empty place in my soul to the healing power of Your Spirit. I’m yours, for the operation of that powerful gift of hope. Teach me to lean into your grace and accept your love. Heal the others who have been hurt also. Give us all a new hope. Renew our trust.

Learning to Wait on the Lord and to Hope in His Word
—Psalm 130:3-6