Having Hope When All Seems Hopeless: Intro

After a short break, I will continue our series on Preparing to Serve the Lord. In the meantime, I want to share a few thoughts with you on Having Hope.

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."

Romans 15:4

I wasn’t always a 44-year-old grandmother. Long ago, when dinosaurs walked the earth, I was a 13-year-old girl who thought all was lost. My mother suffered from serious mental illness. From the time I was eight until I was nineteen, she spent more time in mental hospitals than she did at home with us. I was the oldest of five children and it fell to me to care for them. Don't get me wrong, I love them all dearly, but children aren't the best choice for raising other children. As I entered puberty, I faced not only the usual fears and struggles of a 13-year-old girl, but I faced those things alone with more responsibilities than many grown women shoulder. I thought all hope was lost.

I'd been in church since I was two. I had been saved when I was only five. I had surrendered my life to the will of God shortly after I turned eight. It was only my relationship with the Lord that carried me through.

Since that time, I have experienced many trials during which I found myself clinging to the Lord.

Over the coming days, I want to give you 6 things that will help you have hope, when all seems hopeless.

Those things will be:

1. It’s okay, and even a good thing to cry.
2. Keep God real.
3. Remember all the good things God has done.
4. Be mindful of the good things in your life and don’t focus on the bad.
5. Look for something everyday to remind you that God loves you.
6. Look to the future.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

Psalm 42:11