When You Need to Find Hope Again
I used to be afraid to hope.
I hadn’t always been like that. I used to be really hopeful, actually, but somewhere along the way, discouragement began to take over.
Hope opened the door to disappointment, and I didn’t want to be disappointed.
Worse, unrealized hope meant embarrassment, and I didn’t want to be humiliated or appear foolish or naive.
Consequently, when I’d feel hope rising in my heart, I’d squash it with force, asserting that I wasn’t negative, just “real.” After all, I knew how the world worked, how people treat others, how things never turn out the way you plan — or hope.
So one day I just stopped hoping. Or at least I said I did.
To be quite honest, on more than one occasion, hope crept into my heart and I silently entertained the excitement of what could be, though the “realist” in me kept hiding the hope, certain I’d end up disappointed in the end.
Hearing that someone has lost hope is sad, but what is even worse is when losing hope causes you to lose your belief. And it almost always does.
When we stop hoping, we stop believing — and somewhere in there, we stop praying.
If we don’t believe, we don’t pray.
Friend, are you there?
Have you begun to lose hope or did you lose it a long time ago?
Hope in your marriage or for your children? Hope for friendship or healing or in your family or your career?
I know this post isn’t for everyone, but I know it’s for someone. During my devotions this morning, I was reading in Romans, and Romans 5:5 stopped me abruptly in my tracks. I knew I needed to scrap my other post and write this one instead because I’ve been there. I’ve been in that place —unable to pray; unwilling to hope, and one of you needs this post, needs these words, needs this Truth:
“Hope does not put us to shame.” (Romans 5:5 ESV)
Hope does not put us to shame!
Paul tells us this in the context of walking through suffering and developing endurance, and he reminds us that when everything looks impossible, it’s okay to hope!
No matter how dire or outrageous, we can hope — and it’s all because of Jesus.
Romans 5 reminds us that when we were thrown out, pushed down, beat up and caved in, we were depraved and deprived and desperate and defeated, slaves to our sin, with no hope for redemption, God showed up.
In our impossible, desperate, hopeless situation, God showed up and redeemed us.
He redeemed us!
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God showed us His love when we didn’t deserve it and couldn’t earn it. He showed us His love even when we pushed Him away in rejection and looked at Him with contempt.
Would you love someone like that?
Seems impossible doesn’t it? Hopeless?
But God did.
We were in an impossible, totally desperate situation. We were dead in our sins but were made alive again through Christ Jesus.
Dead!
It doesn’t get more impossible than that. But death was no obstacle for Jesus. God is in the business of making dead things come alive — what hope!
God redeems.
God redeems us, and He redeems the impossible situations in our lives.
Because of what God has done and because of what God is doing, Friend, we can have hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
Have you lost hope?
Does your marriage feel dead? Are you in a situation where a solution seems impossible?
Have you lost hope for your spouse or a child or a relationship that feels out of your control?
Have you stopped believing? Have you stopped praying?
Hope does not put us to shame.
God can do more than we can ask or even imagine. He. is. able!
Because of Jesus, we have every reason to believe. Every reason to hope.
“But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose HOPE is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.” (Psalm 33:18-22)
Question for you:
Where have you lost hope and how can I pray for you today?
Resources for you:
10 Bible Verses for when You Need Hope
Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore
You’ll Get through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times by Max Lucado
Glorious Ruin by Tullian Tchividjian
Blessings,
Erika
Great post!
I sort of found a place beyond the end of hope, if that makes any sense. It’s a land where duty and honour hold sway, and where God expects a clear-eyed and resolute countenance.
See, they say I’m dying, and some days, I do feel it. A miracle healing would be nice, but I fully understand that God may be using the way I deal with this to help others…and perhaps the illness had to land somewhere, and He cared enough to send the very worst, because He knew I would turn ashes to beauty, or die trying. (And there’s my laugh for the day!)
I have a job to do, and I intend to demonstrate that even in the absence of conventional hope, there is a deeper confidence that this ordeal is worth something. That every step in pain, every moment curled in a foetal position on the floor because I simply can’t move…that these are still moments worth living, because they animate both faith and compassion. And I can write about these.
And I have not given up. My avocation is building airplanes, and I’m currently – physical ability permitting – building something called a Pitts S1-11B, which is, to me, and please pardon the expression, the ultimate badass aerobatic aeroplane.
It’ll take me years to build (I should live so long!), and each work session wipes me out for several hours.
Why do it?
Because hope has to reach forward.
Wow, Andrew! Yes, your outlook and attitude will definitely affect people. Facing death seems the epitome of despair, and yet, it really is facing life if we have grasped and pulled in the sacrifice of Jesus. I see you shining in the midst of physical decay. THAT is a testimony. Thank you. And I pray you get to complete your airplane. My husband would be the one aching to fly it!
Wow, Andrew! YES, hope has to reach forward. Your courageous living gives others hope. You are an inspiration!
Thank you so much for the encouragement. I am sure that I come back to read this again. I have suffered for four years with infertility and just lost a baby two months ago. I was feeling so foolish to hope that I might still have a child after all that has happened. Pray that I will have hope – both for a child and for God to redeem all that has happened because right now it just feels like a horrible desert in my life. Thank you.
Yes, yes, Melanie, I am praying that for you. I am so sorry for your loss and am grieving this little one with you.
Thank you for reminding me that our God is the God of the impossible.
I woke up this morning and said to the Lord, Not one thing I have ever hoped for in my family has come to pass. I have a daughter who is married to a drug addict, a son injured severely in a car accident, another who is a heroin addict living on the street, one son who is planning on moving to another country and is not walking with the Lord and another who has been expelled from his christian school for using drugs. My husband and I have walked with the Lord from our teen years and have been faithful in raising these children with much prayer to walk with Jesus. At this point we just have so much shame we can’t even go to church without feeling such judgement. We continually ask ourselves what we did wrong, but honestly can’t come up with anything. Not to say we are perfect, we are not, but can’t find anything we would do differently. We study, we pray and we trust but some time hope seems so far away when pain is so present.
Oh Friend, reading of your pain breaks my heart. Please know that I am praying with you and for you…
Thank you for your words of encouragement. They come at just the right time in my life. My marriage is in trouble as I’m struggling with trusting my husband after some mistrust that occurred last year. Although he’s still here and says he wants to fix the brokenness, I just can’t seem to get past this bump in the road. With your post I’m reminded that there is still hope for my broken marriage. Please pray for me and my marriage. Thank you!
Oh Sue, there is! There is still hope! I understand the pain of mistrust and the resulting struggle that affects *everything.* I am praying with you and for you. Please consider joining us over on my instagram (instagram.com/erikadawson) or Facebook page (Facebook.com/erikasweetingdawson), as a whole community of women are praying together daily for our husbands. It has made a world of difference for me!
oh, thank the Lord, that He prompted you to post this, yes, someone needs to hear this…I knowI do, I have lost hope in believing that my future will be what I want…. But have started to believe and actually dare to hope inthe future He has for me. Learning to trust. Learning to hope. Our relationship with our daughter and her decision to walk away from trusting in God, caused a cataclysmic rupture in our family… Her decision affected every relationship and every deam…. Dreams of Pickett fences, similing family dinners and shared bonds…all gone. but this post has reminded me that God will use this for His glory and our good. Thank you for following His prompting. This will be printed and placed wherei can read it often,and shared with other hurting hearts. God Bless
Diana, thank you so much for sharing your heart. My prayer today is that you will allow yourself the time and space to grieve those losses and that as you do, you will know Christ’s abiding presence in a deep and new way. Praying with you, dear Sister!
Thanks, Erika! I was one who needed that. And I forwarded to a friend too. 🙂
I’m so grateful, Laura! Thanks for letting me know, too – that was an encouragement to me!
God is in the business of making dead things come alive! Thank you for reminde me of that.
So thankful it was an encouragement to you, Anna!
Just saw this post today. I think this is where I have been for a while. I desperately need hope for physical healing and for my marriage. I was in an accident recently and am unable to care for myself. My husband has been distant even before the accident we were having issues but today I have realized that if I were in a position to care for myself he would not be here. He is only helping out of obligation and knowing it would not look good to leave me now while I am not able to care for myself. I want to have hope for the situation but I think I have caused so much pain to him and he is not willing to give us a chance. Prayers are appreciated.
I have lost hope after 1 and a half years of separation that God will restore and heal my 36 year marriage. I have pestered so hard in every way.
I have lost hope for my marriage, my husband says he doesnt think things are gonna work out for us, and yet I am not to bring anything up. He calls it drama if I try to talk to him n he ca.t take it anymore . I have loved him a couple of affairs that I know of n I still love him with all my heart, he was saves after I one of them n still tells me he’s a different man, but I see the man I used to see n have lost my hope afraid to hope again n I am so tired.I need ur prayers