The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. [Proverbs 10:28, ESV]
This verse is very encouraging to me. I am currently waiting on the Lord to fulfill some things that He has put on my heart, and I have often wondered why I am able to continue waiting for something, no matter how long it takes. The initial thought I had was, “I must be delusional or something”, but, as I continued to seek the Lord, I found that my motivation to keep going, to keep waiting for these things to happen, had been strengthened. Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, yet I was still able to have peace about what God had put on my heart.
I still have peace, and that peace gives me joy, and that joy gives me hope. Actually, all of those things come from God, and I have received those things from God as I have sought Him and His righteousness. I am not perfect, and I do not claim to be perfect, but I can say that I make the effort to seek the Lord every day, and as I seek Him, I am being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
The more I seek the Lord and His righteousness, the more the Holy Spirit sanctifies me, and the more like Christ I become. I am not Christ, I will never be Christ, but I will always seek to emulate the example that Jesus set for us.
As we continue to seek God, our desires begin to align with His. When I rededicated my life to Christ, I gave Him all of me. He was given my future, He was given my desires, my aspirations, my relationships, my career-path, my education, my assets, everything. I left everything at the Feet of Jesus, saying, “not my will, but Yours.”
As soon as I submitted my will to Christ’s, I began to understand why I was where I was, what God had planned for me, and the difficult road that I would need to travel in order to see the future that God had revealed to me. I did not receive a comprehensive explanation of what my future would be like. In fact, I received next to nothing, in terms of what my future will look like. I was given one or two things, but those things were encouraging. Those things were new to me, but as soon as they were placed on my heart, they became my greatest desires.
Since then, I have pursued the Lord, tested what I have felt with what the Bible says, and asked God to guide me throughout my life. Every day, I make the conscious decision to ask God to guide me, and I thank Him for the life I have.
Am I righteous? No. No human being is righteous. However, Jesus Christ is righteous, and He cloaks us in His righteousness. Through the gift of salvation, given to us by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, we are justified. When I sacrifice my will to the Lord, the Lord gives me desires that reflect His Will for my life. As I seek more of Him, the Holy Spirit produces the Fruit of the Spirit in my life, and I am able to resist the desires of my flesh.
I do not think that this verse is supposed to be about what I have been writing about, but I prayed for God to speak to me, and as soon as I opened my Bible, this verse jumped out at me and I wanted to write about all of these things.
The hope that I have, the hope that is strengthened as I pursue Christ and His righteousness, brings me joy. As the verse in question describes, “the hope of the righteous brings joy”. That hope is what allows me persevere as life beats me down, as the devil attacks my spirit, and as my heart aches.
When I rededicated my life to Christ, I had other desires as well. Some of those desires were purged from my heart as I sought more of God. The “expectation of the wicked” did perish, as this verse says that they would. The wicked desires I had were removed from my heart as I sought more of God, and He replaced those wicked desires with desires that line up with God’s Will for my life.
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