Do you ever have those times in your life where it seems like the dam has broken in your life and it keeps flooding you with things and it never seems to stop? Where you wonder if there will ever be an end to troubles that seem to constantly come our way? Maybe you are feeling that now or sooner or later it will come your way because of the messed up world we live in.
Many times the troubles are not anything that we have caused, but just seem to find us. We look at our life at we seem to be trying our best to do everything we are supposed to. We work hard, we read our Bible faithfully, we attend church and serve faithfully where needed. Why do these things keep coming our way even though we are as faithful as we can be?
Well, many times in life, God waits while a situation goes from bad to worse so that you and I say, “There is no way now for this ever to work out.” But that is the point when the omnipotent God intervenes in our hopelessness and says, “Oh, really? Watch this…!
Hope is one of the most powerful things that you will ever have access to. Hope allows you to stop focusing on your present troubles and believe for a better tomorrow. Hope allows you to continue believing that God has something better for you than the things that you’re dealing with in the moment. However, hope is often easily snatched away, overshadowed by the adversity, hardships, trials, and tribulations that are a natural part of daily life. In those moments, it’s up to you to find hope, even in hopeless situations.
Life is often a painful, confusing, tiresome experience. Even when things are going relatively well, we can still usually point to a few areas of our lives that just aren’t where we want them to be. It’s not uncommon to evaluate where you are at in relation to these hardships and start asking questions. Why do I have to deal with suffering? Why do I constantly battle against depression and anxiety? Why do I have to wake up every morning, put on a fake smile, and muddle through life while I’m trying to find hope?
In those moments, it’s your responsibility to find hope. Yes, God will put hope in front of you, but during seasons of intense hopelessness, it’s up to us to find hope. That’s not to say that God somehow dangles hope in front of us, putting it behind hardships, and expecting us to dig it out. Instead, it means that there are times that we have to go against our own human nature and find hope.
In Psalm 34:17-20 it reminds us that…
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
One of the most powerful things about hope is that it serves as a sort of binder. When everything in your life feels like it is falling apart, and going in a million different directions, hope wraps us up like a warm hug from a loved one, and helps hold us together.
However, hope can only do that if we look to the true Source of hope. What do you look for when you need something to hold you together? Many people look to their own personal success and the things that they’ve acquired. Sadly, those sources are temporary. Some people look to relationships with others to hold them together. While it’s important to have a trusted support system, people are prone to let us down. When that happens, we’re left in a state of disarray. Instead, we need to look to Christ as the true source of our hope.
Allow God to hold you together in moments of hopelessness. When you find yourself completely wrapped up in His provision and goodness, hope is a natural byproduct.