There are times in our life when it seems like all is lost and we are left without any hope. These are called times of despair. The dictionary defines despair as “the complete loss or absence of hope.” If you live on this Earth then chances are that you have experienced times of despair in your life when everything seemed hopeless. This is just a part of life and what we do during those times of despair is what determines how far we have come in our spiritual walk as Christians.
Paul talks about the power of God during these times of despair in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” We have hope as Christians that all is not lost and God is still with us during the tough times and we must do our best to put our faith and our trust in him to deliver us.
Psalm 42:5 says “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” David talks about his own soul being downcast and in despair and asks himself to put his hope in God and praise his name. Sometimes all we can do in times of despair is to put our hope in God, no matter how bad the situation. It might be out of our control and we may not be able to do anything but if we praise God and worship him during those times then just know that with God all things all possible. We serve a God who is a God of miracles. The word miracle was invented to describe things that can only be done by God. Nothing in our life is beyond the power of God to fix and heal.
Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” This is the only way to have hope to put our faith in Jesus Christ. When we despair we chose not to put our faith in Jesus but in what we see. Hope means having assurance in what we do not see and knowing that God will bring us out of it. So do not despair for the Lord will answer prayer, for those who endure the victory is sure. These are the words out of a very popular hymn that we have all sung in Church but the words make absolute sense.