WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'VE LOST ALL HOPE

By David Stephens

I know of someone who lives life by way of retreating. I mean, going into a cave and not coming out type of retreating. Run over by an overwhelming world; disconnected from family and friends; Christian, but more comfortable surrounded by a self-inflicted darkness than living in the Light that entered into the world.

Existing, yes; living, no.

Faith?

Are you kidding me!

You don’t understand. (Or maybe you do).

People don’t live by faith anymore. At least not those who wander into the cave of hopelessness. Once the spiritual eyes adjust, walking deeper into the darkness becomes much easier than turning around and heading back toward the Light. Light brings exposure. And no one looking for comfort in the cover of darkness wants to be revealed.

Once in the cave, the enemy speaks consoling words, warm feelings of justification by which the hopeless can snuggle-up in, safe and secure, now, surrounded by darkness. The last thing the enemy wants is for any amount of hope to spring eternal. Hope leads to faith, and faith blinds away the darkness. Better for the enemy to snatch up the beginning of hope, for fear it might breakout into an all-out-war of faith.

Jesus is a rescuer. He comes for the one who doesn’t have the strength to come.
What makes a person choose hopelessness over life, anyway?


In various degrees, we all choose to take cover from the world. The disturbances that fall from the sky like a fine mist don’t seem to bother us too much. Even if they do leave us a little wet, we can handle them. But when the mist turns into rain, and the storms of discouragement come, we get poured upon, drenched with disillusionment. Heading for cover presents the quickest and easiest way to get out of the storm. And sometimes the first place we see to take shelter in is the dark cave of hopelessness. Many times, we enter without fully knowing we have.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take cover in the midst of a spiritual or internal storm. That’s a response God pre-wired into us all. In fact, in the New Testament, the word for “hope” implies running and hiding. Only not into the dark cave of hopelessness, but rather into the warm, open arms of our heavenly Father.

So why do so many people choose hopelessness over God?

You’ll only seek cover in that which you trust. Without getting too spiritually geeky, the Greek, New Testament word that translates “hope” actually gets translated “trust” more times than not. Hope and trust convey the same meaning.

Hopelessness, then, is Satan’s and the world’s alternative to trusting in God. You would never take the enemy up on a specific offer to trust in him instead of God. How foolish would that be! Even the non-believer has enough sense to refuse such an overt offer. Instead, Satan disguises his disruption to your life by sending you an invitation to join him in finding solace in the cave of hopelessness. Hopelessness is anti-trust, saying no to God.

In the past, you may have stepped into the darkness, only to step right back out again. Pressured by the immediacy of your situation, you quickly saw the way to overcome and avoided a long-term stay in the blackness. I’m not sure I would even call this hopelessness.

But to enter the cave and continue walking, without looking back, leads to the dead end of hopelessness. And when a person becomes more comfortable with the darkness instead of the light, life ends. Not the existing part, but the living part.

To live again requires a journey out of the darkness and into the light. But a person truly in despair will never make that trip. It’s too comfortable to remain where they are and too scary to think about moving.

But God has a plan. If in the midst of hopelessness you’ll simply verbalize your desire for Him, the Light will come get you out of the darkness. One word sent God’s direction, even a slight glance His way, and Jesus is on the move.

It’s difficult to comprehend how anyone choosing the path leading to hopelessness wouldn’t be held responsible to reverse course and head in the right direction. That type of thinking contributes to a lot of people settling for despair. They no longer feel deserving of the light, because of how long they’ve lived in darkness. After all, darkness is what they deserve since they chose the cave in the first place. Life becomes a self-imposed prison sentence.

The truth is, they don’t deserve the light—none of us do.

Yet, Christianity isn’t about deserving, but receiving—far more, in fact, than any person could ever hope to get.

Jesus is a rescuer. He comes for the one who doesn’t have the strength to come. But He needs you to ask for His presence. If He came without you asking, the dark shadow of hopelessness would blind you from recognizing the Light. You’d miss Him altogether.

But that doesn’t mean you need to get verbally fancy. Just ask Him to simply come into the darkness and rescue you, and He will.

The enemy is going to tell you that it can’t be that easy. He wants you thinking this way, because the more complicated he can make things seem, the less likely you are to listen to anything other than the consoling thoughts and feelings he’s been feeding you.

But it really is simple. Once you ask for Him, Jesus will enter the cave and pursue after you until He ultimately finds you. And when you place your focus on His coming and set your gaze at the expectancy of seeing His Light, the first rays that pierce through your darkness will revive a feeling that you so long ago lost.

You’ll begin to hope again.



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