When Hope HurtsWhat to Do When the Prayer Still Isn’t Answered

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick…” (Proverbs 13:12)

Some of you are carrying sickness in your soul—and no one sees it. But God does.

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

— Proverbs 13:12 (KJV)

There are few things more devastating than hope that won’t land.

You pray.

You fast.

You obey.

You believe.

But heaven stays silent.

No breakthrough.

No answer.

No rain.

Everyone else is harvesting.

And you’re still standing in drought.

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.

Scripture doesn’t sugar-coat it.

It calls it what it is: soul sickness.

The kind of sickness that can make you walk away.

From the calling.

From the marriage.

From the faith.

Not because you hate God.

But because waiting broke your heart in half.

But the verse doesn’t end in pain:

“…but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

The promise isn’t that you’ll never ache.

It’s that when God delivers—it’ll be worth every second of sickness.

He delays.

But He doesn’t abandon.

His timeline isn’t yours.

But His faithfulness is.

Some of you are in the delay right now.

And your heart is sick.

You don’t want encouragement.

You want answers.

I can’t give you your “why.”

But I can give you this:

You weren’t made to carry hope alone.

You were made to wait with fire in your bones—not silence in your soul.

Hold the line.

Even if your hands are trembling.

Even if your faith is frayed.

Because when the desire comes,

it won’t just end your pain.

It will become a tree—

Rooted.

Strong.

Overflowing with fruit.

This isn’t a Hallmark verse.

It’s a war verse.

A sword for the in-between.

For the battle between prayer and promise.

If your heart is sick, God sees you.

And He is not done.

Stand. Cry. Crawl. But don’t quit.

Your tree is coming.

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