Hope In The Midst Of PainSample

When the Bottom Falls Out

What is hope? According to Mr. Webster, it means to cherish a desire with an expectation of fulfillment. Hope is a confident anticipation of good. It is not just wishful thinking or thinking positive. It is not the same as saying, “Well, I hope so.” Hope is as solid as a helmet, but no helmet will protect you from danger if you have laid it aside. When we lose hope we lose the battle.

You may feel like your world is crashing in around you, but you must be able to say to yourself, “Something good is about to happen.” Many times you won’t feel like it. You may feel abandoned and have no idea at all how you’re going to make it. You’re going to have to reach deep into God’s resources, because no one has any reserves of their own to keep moving forward.

The whole thing is a heart battle and there are three typical responses to pain or rejection that deaden our hearts:

1. We move away from people and God.
2. We move toward some other source of relief or acceptance.
3. We move against others.

In order to learn to hope again, one must go back to their ABCs, to their foundations. I figured out three core values: (1) God is good all the time; (2) “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28); and (3) something good is just about to happen.

Hope is vital to your well being. How can you start to find it again?

• Evaluate your responses to your pain. Get help to find your way past automatic reactions such as bitterness and despair.
• Figure out the core values of your life.
• Put on your “helmet of the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8), which protects your soul and spirit.

Prayer:

Father, I present myself to you in Jesus’ great name, and I declare that you are the source of my life. In you I live and breathe and have my very being. Take me on a journey to a place where hope is no longer deferred but where fulfilled desire becomes a tree of life. As I come running into your arms of redemptive love, do what only you can do. Only in you can all things be made new. Amen.