Out of the Depths of
Despair
Is this
where you are today? Are you in the
depths of despair about a situation that you have no control over? Can it get worse? Have you lost all hope? Psalm 69:2-3 “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no
foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. (3) I
am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for
my God.”
Perhaps you
feel like you are sinking down into deep places where all hope is gone. Let me encourage you with HOPE!
And this is it – Hope is born of God’s great love. Psalm 69: 13-15 “But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great
love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire,
do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep
waters. Do not let the floodwaters
engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.”So much of the time we look for our own solid ground, but continue to drown, or sink and we feel claustrophobic, or feel like we’re being closed in all around us. At times we question why we feel the way we do. Do you know, even the great men of faith had times they went through this. King David asked this question, “Why are you cast down, oh, my soul?” Turn to Psalm 42, beginning with verse 5, Psalm 42:5 “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” and then verse 11 – “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
Why am I in the “depths of despair and how can I get out? There are 3 basic questions that I want you to ask yourself. 1) What is this HOPE? 2) How can I find HOPE? 3) How can I depend on HOPE? I’m going to answer these three questions based solely on the scriptures.
1. What is this hope? – Let’s go to Psalm
146:5. “Blessed is he whose hope is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the
Lord, his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them
-the Lord who remains faithful forever.”
The word, ‘Hope’ means to: want and
expect something from someone or something. If you are in the ‘depths of
despair’, you are wanting something, but not expecting
something. It is want without
expectation. It means you have no
hope. Without hope it is only wishful
thinking, or luck, or by chance and probably your chances aren’t very good.
This scripture also tells me that
the person who hopes in God is blessed and a blessed person’s soul is not cast
down, or in despair. He, or she, isn’t
depending on luck, but on the very one who created us and everything around us
– earth, sky and sea. God is forever –
he is eternal. He isn’t going to
disappear like people sometimes do. He’s
going to bless you when to look to him for help and hope. Verse 8 says, “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.” When we are in this condition, God will lift us up if we put our trust in Him. Therefore, HOPE is intertwined with Trust. So, the answer to “What is this hope?” is - real hope comes from trusting God and expecting an answer to our trouble!
why are you disquieted within
me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
for the help of His countenance.”
2. Keep his commandments. Ps. 78:7 “That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but
keep His commandments”.
3. Hope is found in His Word. Ps 119:114 “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.”
4. Hope in His Mercy. Ps 147:11 “The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in
His mercy.”
5. Hope in God’s love. Romans 5:5 “And
hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
6. Hope through prayer. Romans 12:12
“rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;”
There are so many ways to find Hope
if we look for it. To just sit and give
up should not be in a Christian’s vocabulary.
In the Old Testament in the book of Job, we see Job’s despair when he
says, “For I am utterly
helpless, without any hope.” Job 6:13 (TLB ) Yet, in the end God blessed him with more than
he had in the beginning. He proved to
Job that no one is ever ‘hopeless’.
3. How can I depend on hope? Did you see the Frog at the top of the page? It is an awesome example of trusting
God. FROG: Fully Rely On God. If I fully rely on God, we can depend on
receiving God’s hope. How do I know
that? Roman’s 5:5 tells us, “And hope does not disappoint us, because
God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has
given us.”
If you believe in God, then you
must also believe in His Word and His Word says that He is the God of
Hope. Romans 15:13 “May
the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that
you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
If you believe in Jesus, the Son of
God, then you must believe in hope, for I Timothy 1:1 says, “Christ
Jesus, our Hope.” To sum it all up, “Through him you believe in
God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope
are in God.” I Peter 1:21
SO…if you are in the ‘Depths of
Despair’ today and don’t know what to do about your situation, look up! The God of Hope will never give you more than
you can bear. (1 Cor. 10:14) Are you
without HOPE – wanting something, but expecting nothing? Tonight, call out to God and tell him what
you want. He wants to supply your need,
whatever that need may be.
Are you in need of a job? Are your children not serving God? Are your finances depleted? Is your marriage failing? He is the God of Hope and the supplier of our
need. Then – ask God if you need to change. Are you willing to work where God sends you?Could you change and become a better spouse in your marriage? Are you a good steward of the finances God has entrusted to you? Do you tithe? Sometimes God asks us to do something we don’t want to do, in order for us to put our hope in Him. Let’s pray about these things right now and climb out of those depths and set our feet on the ‘solid ground’, which is Christ Jesus.
Is there something God wants you to do to bring your children into the fold?
This is what he will do: “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”
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