I Am So Depressed…But I Have Hope
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lam 3:19-24 (NIV)
Recently, I found myself embroiled in a drama that was not of my own choosing. It was nothing I wanted, but I felt sure its outcome would ultimately have a negative impact on several areas of my life. It was like a freight training pressing down on me. Seemingly, without hope of turning. For days, weeks, months, I prayed.
And then suddenly…suddenly, the Lord impressed on me a way to pray about the situation. A new and different way. A revolutionary way. And so I did! And then the situation…got…worse. My faith level dropped again. But still I pressed on. And then all of a sudden, the train drove in, but on a different track. Not aimed at me, and no longer driving at torpedo speed. It was as if a superhero and flown up, picked it up and reset it. And in fact He had. Jesus, my superhero!
In the moment that I saw the fruit of my prayers, I wept. Right there in the middle of a business meeting. What else could I do? A miracle had been performed…
It is funny the things that we remember. Sometimes we remember random things and forget important things. We may remember a song, a smell, or a taste. But there is something about pain that is very memorable. Perhaps it is because of our tendency to constantly relive the things that bring us pain.
In this passage the author remembers a time of darkness, bitterness, and a time of being lost. And as he remembers, he is engulfed with fresh despair. Has that ever happened to you? It certainly has to me. I have allowed my mind to go back and ruminate on my hurts- what he said; what she implied… and before you know it, I am mad all over again. Or emotionally affronted. Or wounded and weeping.
The mind is a very powerful tool. We can use it for good, or we can use it for evil. The choice is ours, really, although my mind sometimes runs on auto-pilot, seemingly not giving me a choice in the matter at all. Can you relate?
To be frank, this is a passage in the Bible that can almost give me a seat on which to have my pity party. It is a book of lamenting. But in this passage there is a powerful turning point. Can you find it?
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.”
The other things I called to mind left me downcast in soul. Depressed. Discouraged. Hopeless. But then my mind turned a corner. Now it is being used for good. This I call to mind and therefore have hope. This is the stuff on which I can get up out of the heap and keep pressing on. This is a more powerful memory than that.
What is the this that the author recalls? “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed.”
Because He loves us, we will not be utterly destroyed. We will not be defeated. It may look bad for a time. But that is not the end of the story for us.
Oh, thank God! His compassion never fails. His mercy is constantly replenishing toward me. And you. God is faithful to us. He is our portion. We may stumble. We may cry. But He gets the last word! Because of his love and mercy, we have hope!
Pingback: » I Am So Depressed…But I Have Hope
yes, there is always hope.
Amen, Denise!
What a powerful reminder that He is with us, at all times. He is the source of hope, even in dark times.
Bless you Iris! So grateful that He keeps us in His care when we cannot!
This hit home. I’m praying for a situation right now that seems like a freight train, but I know that I know that I know that God will prevail! Thanks for the encouragement today.
So glad that we have hope! Thank you for sharing this, Sherri.