When Your Hope Runs Low

How good it is to have hope and how blessed are those of us who have it! On a good day, when everything makes sense in our life, hope makes our day go even better and gives us that extra rush. On a bad day instead, it still invigorates us to get out of bed and endure whatever we’re going through; lifting our spirits back up.

If we’re honest, I think we had a lot of confidence 2018 would be a great year. And then for the most part it is, only that for some of us it’s already showing some smudges and a few scuffs. Seems like the New Year faded a little bit and doesn’t seem quite as crisp anymore. I believe it happens to most of us. At least it seems like that to me.

You started working out in January and were super excited but now you’ve half given up. The operation was scheduled to be a week ago, and it still hasn’t happened yet and your family member just waits, in pain. You did all that work and completed your project, yet you still aren’t getting paid. Your senior student had an impressive college application, but didn’t make the school he/she really wanted to attend. Then, the medical result didn’t quite read like you expected it to: the cancer came back. You went on to fill the equivalent of a novel in paperwork for the bank, and yet the loan didn’t pan out. We were all banking on spring this week but got snow instead. Again!

Little stuff. Big stuff. It wears us down, doesn’t it? Seems hard to get through the day when our hope is flaking out on us. Can’t really explain it, we had so much expectancy some months ago…

The good news is that no matter how bad we want to believe we’re the only ones going through these hardships, everyone deals with difficult situations, every day. -We just might not happen to know about what others go through; that’s the only difference. But everyone’s been treated unfairly. Nobody is immune to distress. Pain levels humanity.

I think this helps us understand that we don’t need to be victims of our circumstances. We do have a choice. After all, we make choices every day it’s just that those choices also make us. We need to choose wisely what we’ll set our minds on. If we write ourselves off our own dreams and give up, nobody else will be able to fulfill them for us. If we believe we can endure the challenges ahead, nobody will be able to stop us from making progress in our life.

I really believe that when all our hope seems to run low, in our hearts we will always feel a nudge to try it one more time. We will somehow muster a new resolve to believe this can still happen. Maybe forge the courage to refuse to give up on our dreams, no matter how bad it looks right now.

If we keep on doing the right thing even if the wrong thing is happening, God will always come through for us. You might wonder, but how? For starters, He doesn’t forget the times we try our best, even when it’s hard. He doesn’t miss the ways we help others, even when we think we’re the ones who need assistance. How can he disregard our pain, when He suffered the most? He knows you’re trusting him to help you so He won’t disappoint you. Psalm 25:3, says: “No one who hopes in You, will ever be put to shame…” (NIV)

I want to encourage you today to have HOPE again to believe one more time, even if it’s hard and you don’t see a way out. So get back up, dust yourself off and go again. Don’t give up on your yourself!

C. S. Lewis once said: “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny” If you could get a glimpse of what’s ahead of you right now, you would regain your hope confidently. The tricky part is that we can’t see ahead right this minute, but if you keep doing what’s right and not lose your hope you will fulfill your dreams and your destiny. Don’t lose your hope, even if it’s shaky it will grow stronger!

All the best,

Maria A. Mansfield

Author

“Life is Worth Getting Better”