Hopeless would have been a better term to describe myself. I am not going to go into all the dark details of my life but I will say it has had some dark and even scary times. For any of you who have had a painful past you I am sure understand my meaning here. I lived without hope for most of my life, and for the most part I didn’t even believe in myself. I got to the point that I even wondered how terrible a person I must be to have so much pain in my life. I degraded myself and had no self-esteem. I cannot number the times I thought of death but I did try to take my own life and thank God I failed. I have faced some very serious trials in the past few years and dealt with a great deal of loss and admit I had wanted to give up many times. Yet here I am! I get up everyday and some days are good and some days are not, but I am alive. The pain I feel may not be pleasant but at least I can still feel. How can I find anything positive in any part of my life? My hope comes from the Lord. The things I have lived through even though there was much pain it can be used to do good. For one I can see things in ways that someone who did not understand true pain would. This helps me to be able to love someone I see hurting. This kind of love is a choice. It is not based on the other person pleasing me and doing everything I like but seeing the other person both the good and bad and loving them as they are, Understanding that when people are hurting they do not just hurt others they more often hurt themselves the most. I learned this by learning of the love of Jesus and His sacrifice. He didn’t wait for you and me to get perfect before He died for us. He knew what we would do and still loved us. When I read of His life on earth I see how badly He was treated. He was mocked, rejected, abandoned by His friends, beaten, and crucified, and He did all this because He loved you and me. This is my hope, and this is what gives me the strength to face the day even when I don’t want to. My Heavenly Father loves me even if no one else does and this love is what I truly need. He took me from being hopeless and has given me a hope no other ever could, He has the same love for you as well. Find your hope in Him.

I am a woman who has faced many storms in this life, and have had my ups and downs, but the One who has gotten me this far is Jesus. He loves me so much He died for me, and everything he suffered for my sake makes my pain and suffering seem so much smaller. Now I just want to share with others all He has done for me, and hope I encourage at least one person with what I share.

7 thoughts on “Hope”

  3. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 38-39.

    The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3.

    …to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge…Ephesians 3:19.

    Perhaps we shall never know the love of Christ; it passes knowledge. But we see it, don’t we? Laid out before us. As William Emmanuel Booth Clibborn (1893-1969) wrote:

    Down From His Glory
    Down from His glory,
    Ever living story,
    My God and Savior came,
    And Jesus was His Name.
    Born in a manger,
    To His own a stranger,
    A Man of sorrows, tears and agony.

    Refrain:
    O how I love Him! How I adore Him!
    My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.
    The great Creator became my Savior,
    And all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him.
    What condescension,
    Bringing us redemption;
    That in the dead of night,
    Not one faint hope in sight,
    God, gracious, tender,
    Laid aside His splendor,
    Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul

    Refrain

    Without reluctance,
    Flesh and blood His substance,
    He took the form of man,
    Revealed the hidden plan,
    O glorious myst’ry
    Sacrifice of Calv’ry,
    And now I know Thou art the great ‘I Am’

    Let us just surrender to and lose ourselves in the unfathomable depths of His love. Let us embrace Him and His love. It would be so comforting to lay our heads on His bosom safe in this knowledge that He seeks our very best. As Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925) wrote:

    O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
    Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
    Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
    Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

    O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
    How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
    How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
    How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!

    O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
    ‘Tis an ocean vast of blessing, ’tis a haven sweet of rest!
    O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
    And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!

    Note: Both Song Lyrics available in the public domain.

    [From my post: The Love of God in Christ Jesus.]

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