When My Mental Health Is SufferingSample

Feeling like everything is falling apart around you is one of the ways we find ourselves feeling hopeless.  When things aren’t turning out as we envisioned, when we’re hit with struggle, or when our resources seem tapped out, hopelessness is often the result for many of us.

The truth is our hopelessness is often the result of misplaced hope. Like the woman with the blood issue, she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.  And in that, she grew hopeless.  (Luke 8:43-48)

In our modern world, God often works through doctors and medicine.  And that’s a good thing.  But our hope should not be in the vessel through which God is working but in God Himself. Anything and anyone else will eventually fail or disappoint us.  

If our hope is in that which is fallible, we set ourselves up for hopelessness.  But if we cling to the source of all hope - Christ himself - then we can weather the storms in greater boldness and surety of our future. 

When you’re in the pit it can be hard to see how God will bring you out. But just like the woman in Luke who reached out to touch Christ and restore her hope, we can reach out too.  What's more, we don’t just get a temporary brush of His cloak.  We get the fullness of His spirit every day. 

The Promise

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

The Affirmation

I will put my hope in the Lord and keep my eyes fixed on Him.

The Prayer

Dear God, thank you for hearing my prayer.  Thank you that even though I feel like I am in a pit, you have assured me that you will never leave me.  Help me to take my eyes off of temporal sources of hope and keep my gaze fixed on you - my eternal source of hope! I may not know how my situation will change, but I choose to believe your promise to give me strength and hope through it all.  Thank you for your ever-present help. In Jesus' name, Amen.