Feeling Hopeless?
The Five Truths that Lead to Hope
Are you feeling hopeless? Have you ever found yourself in a circumstance where you truly believed there wasn’t an ounce of hope to be found? Maybe you are experiencing that right now. Maybe you are watching a friend or loved one wallow in that statement. I am going to share with you the five truths that I found while experiencing a dark, hopeless time in my life.
“There’s no hope.”
This is what I said when we were experiencing rocky times in our marriage. However, I had just started going back to church and experiencing God’s presence. So, why so hopeless? Odd, right? Why was I feeling hopeless when I was just re-introduced to the God of hope?
Here’s why: I hadn’t yet fully committed my life to God, so I was partially blind to His extreme power….and to His grace.
I was humbled by the conviction I was experiencing through reading God’s word. In fact, I was so humbled that I allowed it to lead to shame.
Shame took over.
I was so ashamed at how I had been living my life that I couldn’t see past it. My focus was on the mistakes I had made and not on the grace and forgiveness that God was freely handing me. I was feeling hopeless because I was completely inward focused on my own wrongs.
All I saw was what a terrible, disrespectful wife I had been and my husband with one foot out the door, and I couldn’t see hope…I only saw failure.
(To this day, I continue to work on my very black and white view of things… I am hard-wired to wrongly believe that if I am not “perfect” that I have somehow failed. Those thoughts DO NOT come from God)
Even in those days when I felt hopeless and I thought that my marriage was a “lost cause,” I continued to seek God’s guidance through His word. Thankfully, this verse was brought to my attention: Romans 15:13.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13
How was I going to experience hope? In believing! Do you see how that is worded? Let me break it down in the way God revealed it to me.
The Five Truths that Lead to Hope
1. He is the God of hope.
2. He wants me to have joy and peace.
3. I will have joy and peace by believing.
4. When I fully believe, the power of the Holy Spirit will be in me.
5. Through the Spirit of God, I will experience overflowing hope!
Bottom line?? When we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives, there is ALWAYS HOPE! When we place our hope in Him, we experience joy and peace. He does this through His Spirit, which lives in all believers.
Now, if you are like me, you might be saying…..yeah, yeah, I know all that….but THIS circumstance is really hopeless….this mistake is TOO TERRIBLE…..THIS person is beyond repair.
Friends, I get it.
Sometimes our circumstance fills our mind so completely, there is no room for God’s truth.
I picture it like this….when you are taking a photo of a beautiful landscape and you accidentally put your finger in front of the camera. There is a huge, gorgeous world waiting for you to capture it, and your little finger has now completely covered it. Your finger looks “huge” because it’s taking up the whole shot….but in actuality, it’s small, just a finger…and not nearly as vast and majestic as the landscape you were about to capture.
Our hopeless circumstance seems huge, but it’s getting in the way of us experiencing the majesty of our God.
Don’t let the circumstances of life-no matter how hopeless they may seem-rob you of capturing the majesty of God and carrying it with you all your days.
Shame was that “finger” for me. It covered the beautiful landscape God was placing before me. Eventually, through sticking with Him and continuing to strengthen my faith, I was able to see that His forgiveness, love, and grace was there long before my shame took over.
I needed to stop focusing on the circumstance–the mistakes, the poor choices, the wrongs–and move them out of the way.
Once I did, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was overflowing with hope! That hope carried me through even darker days ahead.
I had no idea how God was going to resolve my circumstance. Honestly, it didn’t matter. I was so focused on Him that I knew–deep in my soul–He would lead me on the right path. My hope came from trusting in God completely.
I agree that there is always hope! For me, part of the problem of believing that, was that hope was also scary and risky. Hope sometimes hurts. And when you are hurting it is hard to see past the seemingly unending pain. But even that tiny flicker of hope is enough for God to run with!!
Thank you for your comment. Yes, hope sometimes includes hurt. Trusting God produces hope that is lasting, because it is not based on our current situation. It is grounded in an eternal hope. Praying that we all experience God’s eternal hope today and always!