Apr 23, 2014
Hope, Joy, and Peace be with you!
by Executive Director, Rob Appel
“I am feeling overwhelmed.” Those were the words I used on this rainy March morning when I spoke with Ron Ochs, our Financial Officer. Ron simply said, “One step at a time.”
Do you ever feel like giving up? Do you feel like your situation is so hopeless that the only thing you can do is get up and leave the situations—to just walk away, head out the door and never have to confront them again?
Yet we often do nothing about it. This “Silent Anxiety” will cause people to just go through the motions of their marriage or job. They will maintain the facade of a relationship with their children or parents, but in reality they have given up. They may have stopped working, stopped fighting, stopped caring, and simply emotionally detach themselves from everyone.
All of us have faced a situation when it seems pointless to keep trying. Some of you are probably facing it now and you might be hiding it well. How do we keep holding on when we feel like giving up? Where does the power come from to keep us going?
Trust in God’s Sovereignty
We need to continually remind ourselves that God is in control! My wife reminds me of that every time I try to take control. No matter how hopeless, how painful, how unpleasant, or how discouraging our circumstances are, God has a purpose for them. The struggle you are going through has meaning and purpose, because God is sovereign and He does everything for a reason. God doesn’t make mistakes and He isn’t surprised by what has happened to you.
Read what Job said to the Lord. “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted… Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:1-3, NIV). This means that for us Christians, despair is not an option. Despair is not for Believers who live under the constant care of a loving Father.
Despair is for people who live in an ever-expanding impulsive universe, where bad things happen for no reason. Despair is for people who live at the mercy of “karma” and luck. Despair is for people who live in a world in which there is no God, where no one is in control.
Trust in God’s Power
God can make a way! When we see no escape from our situation, and it seems impossible that our circumstances will change for the better, God can make a way. Our God specializes in all kinds of resurrections!
He can bring life to dead relationships. He can cause loving feelings and attitudes to be created out of nothing. He can renovate people and situations in ways that we are unable to see.
Jeremiah put it this way in chapter 32, verse 17: “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” God can make a way! God is able to do whatever it takes to fulfill His plan for you!
Place Your Hope in Christ
“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” (Romans 15:13).
Whether or not God chooses to change our “hopeless” circumstances, ultimately our “hope” is not in what He is going to do for us in this life. Our “true hope” is in Jesus Christ! Our “true hope” is eternal life that comes from our faith in the Savior. Even with our anxiety, this should put everything into the correct perspective.
As Romans 15:13 (above) tells us, when we place our trust in God, we get Hope, Joy, and Peace.
I am not feeling overwhelmed anymore!