How to Fight Hopelessness

It’s the “most wonderful time of the year” again, and that means familiar Christmas music is playing across sound systems everywhere we go.  The Christmas season seems to start earlier every year, and the jingles often tend to become monotonous. Even the Christmas hymns sung at church can become rote.  However, there is one song that I never tire of singing - “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” The lyrics are a prayer:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

Born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

I love this hymn because it is filled with hope.  The Christmas season is a time of hope as we look backward at our Savior’s first advent and forward to His second advent.  We press on because we believe He is coming again to renew and restore all things. 

MISPLACED HOPE

As human beings, we cannot survive without hope.  Even on the darkest days, we forge ahead because we hope for something.  Most of the time, we find ourselves hoping for temporary things: hoping our child makes the team, hoping we get the dream job, hoping we get married by 25, or hoping the Red Sox win the World Series.  We hope in and for so many things.

However, hoping in earthly things ultimately sets us up for disappointment. When our child doesn’t make the team or we receive a rejection email from that employer, despair can seep into our souls and bitterness may threaten to take root.

How do we maintain our hope and guard against pessimism?  The source of our discouragement could be that we have misplaced our hope. The Bible tells us where our hope is found.  Psalm 62:5 says, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”  KJV translates “hope” as “expectation.”  When our expectations are placed on God alone and what He has promised, we will be better able to stand fast and avoid despair. because God never fails.  We expect God to do what He has promised because He is God.  He cannot lie.  He always comes through. Joshua reminded the children of Israel of this at the end of his life: “You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”  (Joshua 23:14)

THREE WAYS TO COMBAT HOPELESSNESS

Are you currently in a season of losing hope? Are you struggling with disappointment? Consider three things Scripture tells us to do to combat hopelessness.

1. Pray and do not give up.

Jesus knew we would struggle with discouragement.  In Luke 18:1, he tells his disciples a parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”  Our first response to hopelessness should be to pray and talk to our Father.   Psalm 62 says, “Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”  Do we talk to God that way?  Do we pour out every thought and feeling to Him?  In the same way we can talk to a trusted friend or counselor, God offers us the opportunity to pour out our hearts to Him.  He identifies with us in our weakness and stands ready with grace for our hopelessness (Hebrews 4:15-16).

2. Remember His faithfulness in the past.

The Bible does not give us a Pollyanna view of life.  In its pages, we read about people just like us – Job, David, Jeremiah – relaying their true thoughts and feelings to the Lord, often with a remedy for hopelessness.  In Lamentations 3, Jeremiah in raw honesty expresses his discouragement.  But he doesn’t stay there.  Instead, he turns and says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope” as he exerts his will to recall the past deeds of the Lord. 

The Hebrew word for hope in Psalm 62:5 is tiqva, and it can also be translated as cord or line. This is the same word used when Rahab tied the cord in her window in the book of Joshua so that she could be saved from the destruction of Jericho and join the people of God (ref.). She tied the scarlet cord in her window because of hope.   We have hope. We have a cord.  We are not just hoping in vain – our hope is tied to the faithfulness of God. He has been faithful in our past, and he will be faithful in our future.

In addition, tiqva can also mean “bound together.”  Community plays an important part in remembering God’s faithfulness.  Every Sunday we gather as the people of God, bound together by His Spirit, and we sing hymns of hope. We are looking and waiting for Him in expectation together. Do not neglect gathering with your brothers and sisters; they will help you battle hopelessness and remember his faithful works.

3.      Look for His hand at work today.

A few years ago, I was speaking to a group of ladies at our church about anxiety and the role of our mind in the battle.  We did an exercise where I placed various covered objects on a tray.  I told the ladies to look for all the red items on the tray, then I uncovered the tray and let them take time to examine and memorize the red things.  I covered the tray back up and asked them to name the blue items that were on the tray.  They could not name any.  Why?  Because we see what we look for.  Their minds were trained to look for the red items, not the blue ones.  Similarly, we must train our minds to look for God at work every single day.  Psalm 27:13 says, “I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” It is an act of our will to look for God’s hand at work in our daily lives. As we do, our eyes will see His active presence.

When hopelessness threatens to invade your heart, turn your eyes to Jesus – “Hope of all the earth.”  What He has promised will come true. As we place our hope in Him and not in the fleeting things of this world, we can walk in confidence. And then, as we pray, remember, and look for His active presence, our souls will find rest and hope in Him.