Hope When You Feel Hopeless - Pt 3

“Hope When You Feel Hopeless” (Part 3) by Don Emmitte Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV).

I have a love-hate relationship with the verses of our reading today. I truly understand and believe that God knows where I am and is working His good plan in my life; however, I also understand how painful that work might be. There are those times when I feel just as alone and rejected as Charlie Brown in our illustration today. It is those times when I must practice the discipline of joyfully interpreting everything that happens — sickness, death, loss, poverty — as actions of mercy rather than judgment. In doing that I will see a real transformation in the way I live as a Christian. I can accomplish that by reading and believing the truth of Scripture. It is then that I can find hope even in what seems to be a hopeless circumstance. Here are a few Scriptures for you to read and meditate through your trials:  Isaiah 41:13 - God is the one who helps; therefore, we have nothing to fear.  1 John 4:10 - God’s love is displayed and proven when he sent his Son to die for our sins.  Romans 8:35-39 - Nothing can separate us from God’s love — absolutely nothing.  Jeremiah 31:3 - God loves us with an everlasting love.  John 15:9 - Jesus loves us with the same love that the Father loves him.  Isaiah 53:3 - Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, was a man of sorrows. He was despised and rejected by men, suffered and died for crimes he was innocent of, and soaked up the wrath of God for sins he never committed so that he could prove his for us. God ordained all this. That’s a far reaching statement. It goes well beyond the mere permission of God. It is the purposeful action of God toward us. All of this is an expression of the love of God. This is the means through which he will produce “endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (cf. Romans 5:3-5). Our ability to interpret God’s actions towards us as good is inevitably tied to our contentment and joy. If we’re unable to see his providence as good, we will never be content, and without contentment, we will never fully know the joy he has for us. Again, trust in him and his goodness. He has not, and will not let you down.