Feeling All Hope is Lost

The feeling when all hope is lost is the forgetting of past, present, and future grace that covers us.

When hope dies…discouragement lives.

That’s it. Discouragement lives when hope dies. 

It was February 26th, 2020. Every day, news of the coronavirus running rampant in China and now other parts of the world were hitting me hard. That heavy, knotted mass weighing in the pit of me, so familiar from my past, fears flowing as news trickled in.

…No matter that we had felt the clear hand of God calling us ten months ago to pursue an addition of life to our family, a rescuing of an orphan.

…No matter that, once we took the emboldened step of faith, He swung the doors wide open, paved the way for us with timelines, finances, hopping over numerous obstacles with ease. 

Don’t take God out of your past

Always the temptation for us to discard the little (or big) faithfulnesses shown by the power of His mighty hand in our former years –

not because we don’t regard them for what they are –

but because we’ve forgotten.

The bright shining light bulb of this new trial is swinging boldly in our faces and we have yet to peer around it, push it out of the way, see anything else. Hearts seize and vision is blocked in the blinding incandescence. But God is the greater light, and if we would move the blinders, we’d view the brilliance of the sun…that outshines all else.

Hello February 26th, day of excessive worry and unhappy disposition, I make a wise move and pen for myself a rather raw list of all the other times I’ve not only excessively worried, but have lost hope.…and God came through…

When despair has crept around and grabbed ahold of your heart, those remembrances of God in our past paints the reality of a very active God present in your now.

We mustn’t forget Philippians 4:5 – The Lord is at hand

Our praises from the past, be they ever large or small, point to a faithful God in their midst. My Lost Hopes, once piercing lights dominating my scope of view, faded to dim, even extinguished over time. I can still recall them…

❤️ my yearning for deep friendships
❤️ the helplessness felt in infertility
❤️ my incapacitating and extreme chronic illness
❤️ groping through devastating emotional issues with one of my kids

…all pangs of hopelessness felt, all still held firmly in the hand of God.

Doubtless, my youth is the primary area of lost hope for me. A solid decade without a shred of promise of a stable life. Wandering shadow to shadow, little did I comprehend His care for me all those years, the breadth and height and depth of His love.

All I knew was hope lost.

Attempt after attempt at gaining traction in my struggle to the surface, only to discover myself drowning again in the waves. Those were dark times in a deep sea, but the bobbing beneath the waves did not last. Introduce a pinpoint of the sun into my view after that decade, that minuscule point slowly growing into

a pea…
a saucer…
a beach ball of His sunshine.

Slowly. But it happened.

Usher in now 2020, the year of the rat and the disease of bats, I suppose. COVID-19 has taken the lives of almost 400,000 to date, infecting more than 6,400,000, seemingly planted our world on the brink of a global recession, swept fear into the hearts of traveler, investor, citizen, mom…

this mom, who’s half a world away from the believed promised child to come.

Yet, God is here. And nothing takes Him by surprise.

Don’t take God out of your present

Haggai 2:1-11 finds the prophet delivering a message to those in the days post destruction of Jerusalem and it’s temple, remembering their the former glory. Drained, having been thwarted thus far from rebuilding the temple – these are men who have lost hope, who are facing deep discouragement in the midst of their present circumstances.

3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts,

5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. – Haggai 2:3-5

&

The Lord’s words to them…

Be strong. 

     Work, for I am with you. 

          Fear not.

More than that, He declares an even more glorious house to come and a promise of peace.

Don’t take God out of your future 

Future grace. Every step forward, every movement made in faith should be based upon the principle that His grace has gone before you. Stuck in the pit of suffering and solitude, your climb out is steep and seemingly impossible; millions of questions may flurry in your mind, intricacies of

❓How will I
❓What if
❓I can’t do this

aiming to press you back down. The answers are not yours for the moment and they will never be the ones to pull you out – only those Able Hands and an underlying belief that future grace will catch you on the other side.

Take the hands.

Be strong by letting His power be perfect in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Fear not, as He knows what tomorrow will bring, when you do not. Take one step, step by step, the next step, with Him.

God is already there – in your future. Hard as it may be at times to fathom, he designed you for something. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

One person today
yet another in a year
and year after year
ever healing
ever changing

as He fashions you further and weaves the tapestry of your life.

If He’s called you to something, work at it with all your heart, knowing He’s right there with you.

If you’re brave in this, you will never be the person who looks at your life and sees it as wasted.

Rather, your eyes will behold such a well-lived life, days to the brim of His strength and grace to you, now ready to move on. And on that precious day He’s designated for you, you will close the door here and enter in a more glorious house –

oh, heavenly home that He has gone ahead to prepare for you (John 14:2-3) –

and the promise of ultimate peace welcomed in, tender heart rejoicing in its homecoming.

Until then, let us work on the mission God has given us. Let’s work as though we have hope.