One Step Closer to a Yes

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” Prov 13:12

Early in my marketing career I have learned:, “Every time someone tells me “NO!” I get happier — because I’m one step closer to that person who will say “YES!”

Some people cannot bear to be told “NO” even once; let alone repeatedly. And then there are others who stop just one person too soon. All they needed was to ask one more time. But they didn’t. Disappointment can do that to you if you let it. Especially if it seems to be unrelenting — one blow after the next.

I have discovered a splendid little poem that has anchored my life in those times when everything seems to be going wrong — times when your hopes are dashed, your dreams have faded, your deepest desires thwarted, and when so many great expectations become inexplicably disappointed. Maybe you will find it helpful, too.

“Disappointment. HIS appointment. Change one letter, then I seethe thwarting of my purpose is God’s better choice for me!”

It is true, as the proverb says, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick”. But the rest of the proverb is also true “when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”. One doesn’t come without the other.

Take another breath, my fellow traveler; though you have paused alongside the road, you have not stopped. Your journey is not finished. There’s a bend in the road up ahead. And the bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.

Rise from your disappointments and then be on your way; for God has something better in mind for you. And though you have heard “NO” perhaps a thousand times, you are actually one step closer to a “YES!”

And that single “Yes” can turn your life around!

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Cor 1:20.

“Lord Jesus, please help and enable me to rise above disappointments and to stay focussed on YOU my Saviour. Amen”