Maintaining Hope
Life is hard.
Getting fired from your job, breaking up with your boyfriend, falling out with a friend, someone being rude, getting your jacket caught on the door after a long day, watching clips of the news - all of these experiences can strip our hope and leave us feeling exposed. Sometimes, all we can do is swallow our emotions and discouragingly remark, “That’s life.” But after a while, the pain can become overwhelming. What do you do when you find yourself discouraged and hopeless?
You can do a number of things. You can keep burying your feelings, become hardened, develop offense, overeat, or sleep too much. You might try any combination of these to try and rebuild your hope. But I want to recommend Jesus.
The women of the Bible often faced overwhelming hopelessness. The woman with the issue of blood had tried every doctor and remedy without success (Mark 5:26). But when she met Jesus, she was not only healed physically but also spiritually. She experienced true freedom and hope for the first time.
The woman at the well had her own reasons for despair. Her very identity was despised by the Jews for things that happened centuries before she was born. She had terrible luck finding a decent man (five failed talking stages) and everyone in town knew it. But when she met Jesus, He offered her eternal hope and peace (John 4:14).
I’m sure you can relate, as I can, to some aspects of these women’s stories. They were searching for a solution only Jesus could provide. Daughter, I want to remind you that Jesus is our remedy for hopelessness. When life presents its worst, our Lord promises to be our comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4), salvation (Psalm 91:16), and hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
I pray that in this season, you will look to the Lord for hope. That you would not be ashamed to come to Him with all of life’s difficulties. That you would trust Him to mend your heart and restore your faith.
Isaiah 51:10 — The Lord will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins. Her desert will blossom like Eden, her barren wilderness like the garden of the Lord . Joy and gladness will be found there. Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.