HOPE FOR A SAD HEART

WINSDAY WISDOM Session 45

Laugh. Think. Cry. That makes a good day. I try to add a little of all three emotions in our Winsday sessions. Today is reserved for the latter two. (Note: If you need some laughter today, check out session 24 “The Mystery of the Missing Nachos” or session 11 “Listening: I Forgot My Spouse.“)

I have many friends, close and distant, in a hard, sometimes hidden, battle. The stakes are high. The feelings are low. The struggle intense. The holiday season is sometimes the greatest challenge to guard against an implosion of darkness and despair.

Sometimes you feel as if you are holding on by a thread.

There are a multitude of causes. I offer no pat answers or easy recipes. I will not pretend to tell you that what happened to you is good. I do not intend to say you should just shake it off and act as though nothing hurtful has happened; neither do I suggest that I can forecast how your loss and suffering will turn out for good.

In all your hurt and heartache, I am pleading with you to look to the God of Comfort and Hope. He suffers and cries with you. You are His dearly loved child.

Most importantly, God is holding on to the other end of that dangling thread. He will never let you go. Never.

God will fix you, but the process is lifelong. It will take time for you to see and feel differently, but healing can begin this very moment.

I am convinced that God’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives (#1 Textbook) and that His goodness will eventually amaze you beyond anything you can ever imagine.

Sometimes life just does not feel good. The wasteland winds swirl around your parched lips, blurring your vision and burning your face. The desert of despair bleeds your heart, baits your soul, and blasts your mind with doubtful suggestions that maybe this stuff about God’s goodness is just not true for you. Maybe you feel it is just not worth it to go on…unless there really is hope.

There is HOPE. It is not the stuff of wishful thinking or fantasy dreams. Hope is grounded in truth. That truth is revealed in God’s Word. It is real, relevant, and reliable. It is supremely sufficient for your suffering and circumstances. With the aid of spiritual binoculars of truth, you will see HOPE on the horizon and feel HOPE in your soul.

Hope: the confident expectation of experiencing all the future goodness God has promised you… somehow…someway…sometime.  

         

In the most painful moment—God is with you. In the bigger picture—God is for you.

Everything God does is wise, right, and good even when you cannot see it that way and do not feel it could ever be that way.

God does not have problems, only plans. God would never have allowed the suffering if He did not have a wise plan to work it out for your greater good.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (#1 Textbook…Romans 15:13). 

Unwelcome news can suck the hope right out of you. Loss, sickness, suffering, broken relationships, stress, uncertainty, medical reports. They can overwhelm your mind and heart with anxiety. Fear can run unabated as your life grinds to a halt. The heart sinks and an ongoing battle against despair ensues.

The mind goes numb, and the eyes become blurred by the fog of the fight. Our feeble senses get overwhelmed as everything starts to shut down. It all feels so negative. If you can even produce tears, you use them up.

Unexpected and unwelcomed circumstances immediately thrust you into a crash course in theology. It is no longer about theoretical discussions but real tests. Does the phrase “all things work together for good” really mean all things?

Give yourself a moment…and some slack. What you feel at this critical moment will not be how you feel as time passes. Faith steadies itself. Hope returns, even stronger, if not for this life, then for the next one.

Love grows like a well-watered garden. Despair cannot prevail against God. It cannot take away from you the things that matter most, love for God and love for your family. Nothing else matters.

Hope in God is absolutely essential to living. We need it as much as we need air to breathe. Without it, the soul suffocates. People who lose hope struggle to live; they lose energy to confront life’s challenges. They have great difficulty getting out of bed in the morning and even greater problems putting the anxious mind to rest at bedtime.

Hopelessness makes the heart grow empty, the mind darkens with despair, and the steps falter along the journey. Whatever problem is causing you to feel anxious, you can be certain your anxiety will not lessen the problem. It will only make you more miserable. 

All of us need hope or else we cave in, fall apart, and give up.

God did not design our lives to crash and burn. There is hope available on the horizon. In Romans 8, Paul wrote, “We know.” He was not talking about awareness of some facts; he used the word for coming to a resolved, fixed conclusion. Through years of suffering and affliction, he became convinced of God’s great faithfulness.

We know…that God…therefore, we hope (#1 textbook). Those divine promises become the soul’s safety, security, and satisfaction. Hope in God fills the heart, enlightens the mind, and enlarges our steps. It will shape us, motivate us, and comfort us. Hope in God will breed encouragement that is not only life-sustaining, but also life-invigorating.

How does hope coexist with the heartache that has come into your life? Sorrow, suffering, and sickness are never meaningless. God has strategically placed you in this world of suffering in order to display the living hope inside you. I know, right now, you question the very existence of that hope.

There are many things in life that cannot be called good. For example, cancer or criticism is not good. It is amazing that when suffering comes, it surprises us. The Lord has told us repeatedly, we will all suffer; do not be surprised when it happens. No matter how many spiritual lessons we hear about suffering, we are still surprised, if not shocked, when some unwanted circumstance (like cancer or criticism) happens to us.

The knock on the door of your heart might be coronary disease, car accident, calamity, crisis, sibling squabbling, or your child’s problems. Discouragement, debt, divorce, drug usage, difficulties, or depression are regular visitors to most families.

There are no garage sales to get rid of bad circumstances, no garbage dumps to unload the pain, no discount shopping centers to purchase a healthier body. It cannot be wished away. No one can trade you places, not even a loved one who would. Whenever suffering comes, it disrupts life much like throwing a big rock into a smooth, peaceful lake. The shocking disturbance creates big waves with a continuous ripple effect. It messes up your normal routine in life.

When things in life are as bad as they can be, when the pain is as unbearable as it can get, when you feel as far away as possible, look to God’s promises in the #1 Textbook (like the one in Romans 8:28). God’s promises serve as highway billboards pointing to hope on the horizon.

Place your hope in God’s goodness, not doctors’ reports or medical research or the stock market gurus. This is the time to set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (#1 Textbook…1 Peter 1:13). Literally “hope fully.” This is an imperative command to feel confident in the final outcome.

Wherever you are on this section of your life journey, God is with you.

Are you in the classroom of despair? Make this lesson count! See your life from an eternal perspective! Live it for an eternal purpose!

Every day is a gift from God whether it is the first day of a long life or the last day of a shortened life. Each new day becomes more precious…and purposeful.

God created you to be a vessel of His love to others. Love them first and most in the same manner He loves you.

Despair tries to throw cold water on your love, but God just pulls you closer to His heart to feel the warmth and passion of His love. Nothing can separate you from God’s love. Not worsened circumstances, not cancer, not the loss of a loved one. Nothing. That assurance is such an important anchor of truth for hope,

There is always an ultimate divine purpose to suffering. Life’s greatest spiritual lessons are learned in the arena of adversity.

Without the boiling process, a teabag is useless. Sometimes God places your life into the hot water of affliction to prepare you for greater usefulness.

Do not be surprised when circumstances heat up; you will have to struggle with thoughts of unfairness and regret, anger and anguish, fear and despair. That is the battleground on which hope wins its most precious victories! Do not give in; do not give up. Hope in God.

Your suffering is part of a larger drama. We are fragile people living in a flawed and futile world. The anger, doubts, and confusion are normal reactions, but not healthy ones. None of us know what the future holds, but our hope in God is bigger than the despair that can come from the present circumstances.

Jim Elliot, martyred missionary, once wrote, “I pray that my life will be a testimony to the value of knowing Christ.” Make that your purpose. God will take care of you. Your life is here to be an encouragement to others that God is great in faithfulness.

Do not waste any of your days. See each day with a heart of wisdom (#1 Textbook). Spend your time loving God and others. That is a day, a life, well-spent!

Again, despair is not something you can just snap out of because some goofball “friend” tells you to hope. I truly understand that. This is a process.

Much like a post-doctor’s visit, it takes some time to process what was said with what went through your mind like a blur. It might benefit you to give some time to think through the Great Physician’s words concerning your purpose and perspective in life. I am just a nurse reminding you that you can call the doctor if you have further questions.

For now, here is your prescription and treatment plan…and do not forget to read the Doctor’s personal note to you at the end.

Every day, take a Biblical dose of Perspective and Purpose. Where there is despair, HOPE.

The Great Physician who is there with you 24/7 every day of every year has written you a personal note to pull out and read during those times of suffering that threaten to hide His presence with feelings of despair.

When you feel like the Lord has forsaken or forgotten you, look! I have engraved you on the palms of my hand (#1 Textbook…Isaiah 49:16).

God has engraved YOU on the palms of His hands. Not your name or next appointment. YOU. God will never forget to be there with you and for you. That is the source of your hope, for today and for tomorrow.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break, with blessings on your head. –Wm. Cowper                                                                         

When in despair, love first and love most. That is what Hope does.

Maybe Charlie Brown can help you hope with a little smile.