Tag: despair

Categories
Psalms Devotionals 2

If I didn’t believe…

Hope

Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the Lord’s favor in the land of the living? (Psalm 27:13, NET)

That’s essentially how the Hebrew reads.

If I didn’t believe God is truly good and that he deeply loves me, where would I be in this broken world where so much is outside of my control?

I’d despair.

I’d be bitter.

I’d be angry.

I’d be fearful.

I’d find it hard to trust Jesus.

I’d find it difficult to keep following him.

But I do believe.

So I choose to lead my heart and sing with David,

Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart be courageous.
Wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14, CSB)

Categories
John Devotionals

A world that needs light

Light in the darkness

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it…

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (John 1:4-5, 9)

Last week, I was reading the news and it said that 527 students from elementary school to high school committed suicide in Japan last year.

Just one is too many.

John tells us that in Jesus is life, and that he is the light-giver to those walking in darkness.

There are so many people living in that darkness. So many people living without hope.

And they need that light.

In my church, we’ve been talking recently about our Father’s eyes, and the importance of understanding how God sees us.

That understanding brings light to our darkness.

That’s what Jesus did for everyone he touched. Whenever people looked into his eyes, they saw the Father’s eyes. And it brought light into their darkness.

My prayer is that people would see Jesus in me. That when people look into my eyes, my wife, my daughter, my students, my coworkers, everyone I meet, they would see my Father’s eyes.

And that through me, God would bring his light into their darkness.

May we all have our Father’s eyes.

Categories
2 Corinthians

How not to lose hope

2 Corinthians

Paul closes this chapter the same way he opens it: with hope.

Here was a man that had experienced so much that it would have been easy for him to lose hope.

He had been hard pressed on every side, with conflicts from without and fears from within (2 Corinthians 7:5).

We often face the same problem. Not only do we have to fight our circumstances, but we have to fight our own feelings. We have to fight our fears, our frustrations, our sorrows, our hurt.

Paul had gone through times where he felt perplexed. Literally, the word perplexed in Greek means “no way,” meaning that he was at a loss, seeing no way out of his situation.

He had been persecuted for his faith and even stoned and left for dead. On top of that, we saw all the problems he had with the Corinthian church, leaving him wondering if all he had done had been in vain.

And yet he had hope. Though he was hard pressed, he was not crushed, neither by his circumstances nor his feelings.

Though he was at a loss, he was not “utterly at a loss.” He knew that if he sought God, eventually he would find a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Though he was persecuted, he knew Jesus had not abandoned him. And though he was struck down, he was not destroyed.

Why? How could he hold on to this hope in spite of his circumstances?

Because he knew God had a plan.

He says in verse 1,

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:1)

Paul knew God had given him the ministry that he had. And God didn’t give him that ministry for nothing. But God had given him that ministry to accomplish His purposes.

More, Paul knew that he didn’t even deserve to be given that ministry. He had hated Jesus and had even persecuted the church.

But by God’s mercy, God showed him the truth. God had even told him beforehand, “You will suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16).

So Paul knew that this suffering he was going through was not a surprise to God.

God didn’t say, “Whoa, I didn’t see that coming. Sorry about that Paul.”

Rather, everything that Paul went through, God knew about in advance.

And Paul knew that the same mercy that pulled him out of the darkness of his sin into the light of life, would pull him out of the darkness of his trials into the light of glory as well.

So at the end of this chapter he says again,

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In other words, though we may suffer in this life, even though we may feel like we are falling apart physically and emotionally, day by day God is doing a work in us.

He is using our trials to transform us into the likeness of his Son that we may reflect his glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

So how do we maintain hope in the midst of trial? By fixing our eyes not on our troubles that we can see. But by focusing on Him who is unseen.

Though we may not be able to see his plan, we need to trust that he has one.

We need to trust that these trials will not last forever. That he will bring us through. And that if we hang in there, we will see his glory, not just in himself, but in our situation and in ourselves.

I like the New King James version of verse 17.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

So let us remember that. God is not surprised by anything that you’re going through. He has a plan.

So whatever you’re going through, put your trust in him that he will work out his plans, and if you do, you will find hope.

Categories
Job

What we cannot see

Job

In this chapter, Job is really at a point of despair.  Almost all that was dear to him had been stripped from him.

His children were dead, his wife was of no comfort, he had lost his possessions, and now he was covered with sores from head to foot. I think that would’ve been enough to break any man.

And here, Job pours out his soul.  He curses the day he was born, and wishes that he had been stillborn.

Although he was by no means suicidal, nevertheless, he did wish that when he finally fell asleep at night, that he would never wake again.

But each day, he did awake, and things were no better.  And he wondered why it is that people have to live like that.  Living only to see misery and bitterness in life.

He then asked,

Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?  (Job 3:23)

In other words, “I can’t see the purpose of my own life.  Why has God given me life, when all I have is trouble and there seems to be no way out?”

He concludes by saying,

For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.  What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.

I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.  (24-26)

That was his view from down on earth.

But what of heaven’s perspective?  This is something, interestingly enough to me, that is never shown to Job.

He never knew that God was actually very proud of him.  That God actually boasted about him among the angels and to Satan himself.

He never knew that God allowed these trials not because God was against him, but because God was so confident that he’d make it through.

And he also never saw the fact that despite all that happened to him, God’s hand was still very much upon him.  That though Satan would have destroyed him, God refused to let him do so.

So often as we face trials in our lives, we can’t understand why things are happening to us.  It seems like God is against us.  That he either no longer loves us, or that he simply no longer cares what happens to us.

But let us never forget that God never stops loving us.  That he instead looks upon us as a proud father and that he believes in us.

More than that, let us never forget that he will never take his hand of protection from us despite all that happens to us, and will never, ever let us go through trials beyond what we can bear.

As Paul wrote,

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.  (I Corinthians 10:13)