Transcript Episode 49:
Hi. My name is Jared. I’m not a therapist. I’m not a doctor. I’m not even sure if my short term memory is still functioning. Hi. My name is Jare…did I say that already? Anyways. I’m just a Christian, who like many, lives with a mental health challenge. This is Bless This Brain.
Did you wake up feeling hopeless today? You look at the number of tasks you have yet to do. You look at the painful relationships you’re stuck in. You simply observe the state of the world and the divisiveness and the grocery prices and… you’re just hopeless.
Yesterday, I woke up feeling hopeless. Yeah, I know, don’t overreact. I’m fine today. Mostly.
Hopelessness is a terrible feeling. And it’s so stinkin’ common.
So, though this show at this point has a relatively small audience, I think it’s entirely possible that at the time this episode releases someone’s going to listen. Someone who’s feeling hopeless. Is that you?
If it is. I’m sorry. Though our experiences obviously differ from one another, I know what it’s like to look at the day, the week, the rest of your life, and feel utterly without hope. And that is a terrible feeling.
It feels like you’re in a hole and the hole is so deep and it’s constantly getting deeper somehow. And there’s no ladder. No stairs. No rope. No hope. Oh, and this whole is capped with cement. And there’s an elephant sitting on top of it, and people are feeding the elephant so the elephant is getting fatter and…you know what I’m talking about.
Even if you don’t feel hopeless now, you likely have before. And if you’ve felt, you’re more likely to feel it again in the future.
Now let’s talk about God. We call God by many names. King of kings. Lord of Lords, El-Shadia, and Adonai, and the Ancient of Days.
I love those names, I love that there’s so many name, and I wonder if we won’t learn more someday. But there’s one that maybe you need today. Theos tis Elpidas. Greek for God of Hope. Paul’s benediction. His prayer. His blessing in Romans 15. He says, “May the God of Hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him”
I’ll read that one more time. May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.
Let’s focus on parts of these. First, today, I want you to focus on what Paul calls God. Now, is this a name for God? No. It’s a title. Like Director of Operations, or Master of Ceremonies, or Gandalf of the Secret Fire.
His title the God of Hope. How wonderful that our God is the God of Hope. He could be the God of disappointment, though at times we do feel disappointed, don’t we? He could be the God of trickery, or mischievousness, or war. He’s the God of Hope. That means he has hope. He has hope in Himself. Hope in His plans for humanity. Hope in the whole of time and the story He’s written and in His son and in your future.
Hope. He has Hope. Thank God He has Hope.
Because it’s comforting to know that when we feel hopeless, He doesn’t. We know, that even we don’t feel hope, someone big and magnificent and powerful has so much of it, that He alone can claim the title. God of hope.
May the God of Hope with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.
The second part I want you to notice, is this is not a commandment from Paul that you must be filled with joy and peace. As if it were something you could muster up within yourself. Any of those of us that have woken to hopelessness, and fear, or despondency. We know we can’t muster up joy and peace.
And that’s why Paul put the ball in God’s court. Because He does that work in us. Or he doesn’t. But may he, Paul says. May is not a guarantee. Isn’t that wonderful. Because may expresses possibility, expresses hope, may is a wish.
Because Paul knows, and experienced, we don’t always feel joy and we don’t always feel peace. But he’s hopeful that we will, as, and this is the last part of the verse, as we put our trust in Him.
God’s part in this is providing us joy and peace. Only He can, because he is the God of hope. And our role is to trust.
Trust what? That He will do what He says He will do. That he will make all things right. That there’s nothing that’s been lost that won’t be restored. Nothing broken that won’t be mended. That He will end death. That He will wipe away every tear.
Even when we don’t feel hope in our immediate circumstances. Even when we don’t feel hope that everything is going to just work out fine. Even we don’t feel hope in our own abilities. Or feel hope that we will ever escape our grief. We can still trust the God of Hope, whose will will not be thwarted, whose plans will come to fruition.
Our hope must be in the God of Hope. Our trust in Him and Him alone. May he fill us with joy and hope? He may. I pray He will. You should too. I leave you with this scripture. From the book of Lamentations 3. I think it might be helpful.
It says
“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord…
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love”
The God of Hope, give us future Hope, and holds our Hope, and at time he may cause grief, but He still has compassion for us. He’s so mysterious and strange. But He loves us.
Oh, how He loves us. One day we will look back and be floored by the mastery of his love that was manifested in our lives in such weird and wondrous way. Perhaps we’ll even understand why those who trusted in Him faithfully woke up feeling Hopeless, even though He, the God of Hope had never left our side. Lord, give us faith.
For our good, for your glory, bless this brain.