Finding Hope When You Feel Hopeless
By Keri Eichberger
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. - Psalms 42:11
The heaviness laid thick over my soul yet another day. I fumbled through the worn pages of my Bible to the Psalms seeking comfort, and then slowly scripted each word of Chapter forty-two, verse five in my journal. I sat back and stared in empathy, solemnly feeling line after line…
Why my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my savior and my God.
I contemplated. Yes, why, Keri? What’s the deal? Why are you so troubled? It’s all your unsettling circumstances swirling around you, isn’t it? Your uncontrollable struggles have finally gotten the best of you, haven’t they?
It was true. It happened again. I had done it again. I’d put my hope in more comfortable surroundings that weren’t seeming to be. That would be sure to come, so I thought. But just weren’t, as thing after hard thing kept crashing in on me like a flow of continual waves on the vulnerable seashore of my now shadowed-by-depression season of life. And my hope was depleting.
As I read the verse a final time, my heart felt a prick of conviction. At the end of that tender cry out to the Lord, we are reminded to put our hope in God. I knew this. I knew I should, know I should. And truly, he is my hope. But my display of dismay and soul disturbance sure seems to reflect that my hope is not currently being placed in the solid sovereign God. My cynical attitude is sort of screaming, nothing is reliable and I don’t have much hope at all.
Let me ask you: Can you remember a time when your life felt dimmed by disappointment, despair, maybe even depression? I wonder if you can notice your hope misplaced in outcomes of the world at times, too. Are you swimming in either pool of predicament now?
I can relate.
And honestly, I don’t have all the answers. Or know how long the difficult days will linger on. But I can assure us both of one thing. One thing I desperately pray can give you and me just a touch of encouragement today: The Lord alone is worthy of our hope and trust.
Just like the Psalmist that cried out, then affirmed his hope in the faithful Lord, so can and should we. Tell God you are troubled today, and tell him again tomorrow. Tell him you trust him. Tell him your hope is in him. And in the truth of his powerful loving presence. The Lord is faithful, and he is good.
I wish I could sit with you. Release tears of heaviness and hurt together with you. Feel the comfort of God’s powerful presence with you. And praise him for it all as he hovers close and heals our hearts.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
Will you find a quiet moment today to feel whatever has you down? But then feel Jesus wrapping his arms of compassion around you. With his empathetic embrace. And his knowing wisdom of the good he is working with all the hard things you are trudging through. Voice your hope in his unfailing, goodness that will never let you go, not one single day of the rest of your life. And voice your hope in the perfection of eternity that awaits you as an unconditionally loved child of God.
You may feel hopeless, I certainly slip into that pit over and over, but there is always reason to remain hopeful. Because the absolute truth is this: He is always right with you. With his help and with his love. Behind you, beside you, and before you. I know I need to sit with and breathe in this reminder. To the depths of my aching, longing heart. I pray that affirming this truth will lift your head and heart, even if just a bit, above your circumstances today, as it has mine. I pray you will find refreshed hope and restored strength, peace, and joy, while you continue to place your hope, all your hope, in him.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Ahmed Hasan
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Related Resource: How Habit Stacking Will Help You Discipline Your Mind, Body, & Spirit
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