Finding Hope in Times of Hurt
Has Life Been a Struggle Lately?
How has life been going for you? It has been a really hard summer of life storms for us. We’ve been dealing with sicknesses, death, and divorce that are happening simultaneously within our extended family. And I’ll be totally honest, life can kinda sucks in those moments. We’re getting ready to say goodbye to two of our best families of friends as they move. If I’m completely transparent, I’m sad. Even in spite of the fact that one of them are moving to spread good news in the Philippines (read about our trip together)! I know logically that their move is a good one and there are much worse situations in this broken world. You might be going through one. The struggle is real. Life is hard.
READ RELATED: CAN GOD REALLY USE ME?
Sometimes all we can hold on to is hope. I find hope in God who dwells within me and I know Him through His word to me. It’s so important for us to rely on His power and stay steadfast in following Jesus and clinging to his hope when in the thick of things. Read your Bible friend. I PROMISE God will give you a verse.
Verses jump out at you.
Stay in the Word. Then, recognize when God GIVES you a verse. I’ve really been struggling lately. Even before our family’s matriarch left this earth, God prepared me. God gave me a verse through my morning devotional email four days earlier. If you have a desk job and haven’t set one up yet, I get the Girlfriends in God email every morning. As cheesy as the name sounds to me, their devotionals are quick reads based on scripture. Seriously, one of the best couple of minutes you can spend in the morning. I highly recommend signing up for them.
His gift
2 Corinthians 4 tells me that we don’t fix our eyes on temporary things but the eternal things.
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Corin 4:8
There are times when we feel troubles pressing in on all sides (look at what the disciples go through in the New Testament) but we can know that we will not be crushed because we have eternal salvation gifted to us from the creator of everything. Sometimes we feel so weighted by sadness and that emotion is perfectly fine and applicable to feel in the moment but we know we still have hope in our eternal salvation. Sometimes all I can say in my heart is that I know if my little world crumbles around me, I will still have the Holy Spirit within me and the assurance of salvation through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for me.
Later that week when I was sitting with my grandmother watching her life, I recognized this verse in my morning devotional was given to me for that moment. God is amazing like that, isn’t he?
He Keeps Giving
Another morning devotional email gives me this message. Seriously, if you didn’t a minute ago, sign up for it. I have consistently found myself at my desk tearing up in awe of the timing and personal message from God through these short emails.
This morning He tells me in Hebrews that I’m to continually offer a sacrifice of praise.
“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Hebrews 13:15
Praise can be a sacrifice? Sometimes we aren’t happy happy, joy joy and there are times when we don’t even have the words to know what to pray for. What we can know for certain is that God is holy. That alone is worthy of our praise. I hear you God.
The message found here is from a mother who tells the story of watching her child perish over decades of suffering. Of course, her journey is a long, hard and heartbreaking one. She puts it in these words, “Though together we’ve practiced gratitude day after day, frankly, we are running out of things to be thankful for.” But when she can’t find the words to pray she remembers Jesus setting an example.
He teaches his disciples to start their prayer with “holy is your name”. So she simply starts thanking God for his holiness. Not because her daughter is miraculously healed, not because the doctor came back with good news. JUST because God is holy.
My mother always taught me that we’ll never completely understand God. It would be like explaining algebra to an ant. But we trust God. He formed us, He called us, He saved us, and He is continually molding us. So we know that He is holy and worthy of praise. Therefore in the sadness, we praise His holiness. We’re thankful for His holiness. It doesn’t mean we’re not still heartbroken. We just choose to focus on Him and His foreverness like 2 Corinthians taught. See how He connected those two for me?!
He Ties It All Together with a Fancy Red Bow
This time, God reinforced His word with Hillsong’s Even When It Hurts and tied it all together with a fancy red bow. Praise Him when it hurts, when it’s a sacrifice to even gather the effort. He reminded me that in praising Him we will remind ourselves who is in charge of all of this. He’s in charge even in the middle of a storm. And yeah, this world hurts. It’s broken.
There are much more painful (not to discount the pain my family is in right now) experiences that people all over the world are going through right now. Godly, good people. Still, many of them are pressing in to the Word of God, standing firm in belief. They believe that God loves them, saved their soul, and will gift them with what they need to keep going. Because in their heart they know one day they’ll be standing in the presence of the holy God for eternity. Wow! I needed that!! I’m so thankful to God for putting these verses in front of me at exactly the right time. He even wrapped this beautiful song around the whole experience.
The Gift – Hope
If you are in the middle of a storm, know that I might not know your face but I love you. I’m not casually throwing that out at you. I am heartbroken for the hurt you’re going through and I am praying for you. I’m praying that you will see Him and never lose hope. Never lose hope because He will always be holy and he always continue loving you. Believe what He says. He will continually give you strength through the hurt and hard times. He will gift you with verses at the perfect time. Fix your eyes on the eternal hope of God and continually be on the look out for His word being handed to you through personal study, sound biblical teaching, music, and more.
Hope & love friend!
To get to know me better, read about me and my saved love
Want some verses as a gift from me?! Happy Day! Download these bible verses for little, everyday life situations (like catching every. single. red light). XOXO!
Read Next:
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- Easing Sunday Morning Frustrations; Fighting the Enemy for Your Sunday
- What Are Justification and Sanctification; The Differences Between the Two
- Quick Bible study notes – 2 Peter 1:12-21; Lessons & Reminders for you