Episode #356 Hope for the Worn-Out Believer – How to Bring Your Feelings to God

Are you exhausted from trying to talk yourself into hope? Knowing it's something that you should have, that God offers hope and so you should be able to find hope to place in him… yet you struggle to. Well, I have good news for you. Hope isn't hype. It's not an extroverted, optimistic, loud confidence, but the hope that God gives us is a quiet confidence that he is who he says that he is. And because that is true, then we are who he says that we are, too.

I wanna read for us, Romans chapter 15, verse 13. It says:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

May the God of hope fill you. It's not something that you have to work up. It's not something that you have to fix for yourself or fake. The hope that God gives us isn't hype, but it's trust that God is who he says.

One of the ways that I have gotten turned around in this, and that I see other believers struggle with hope too, is we place our hope in the wrong thing. We place our hope in the outcome that we long for instead of the One that we turn to. I'm asking God for this, not that, and the results don't come out the way that we would want them to. We can lose hope. It can crush or detract our belief because it feels like God has abandoned us. When in reality, the hope that the Holy Spirit fills us with is joy and peace in believing.

I have had to reconcile this within myself in some really tough circumstances. When my mom was fighting cancer, that ultimately prompted her home going to heaven, we prayed for her healing on earth. I wanted more time with her. It feels weird that I'm 40 years old and my mom has never known me at this age. That's odd. It's not what I wanted.

One of the prayers that brought me comfort, even as she was in her health battle, was asking God for his greatest grace for her. Because the hope that I had was not that I knew the best outcome, even though I knew what I wanted. It was a confidence that God is who he says that he is. And because of that, we are, too. And so my mom was his dearly beloved daughter, and I was his dearly beloved daughter, and he knew the greatest grace that he could offer my mom. And so that's what I most asked him for. And right now we both, my mom and I, get to continue living as his beloved kids. Because she's in heaven and she is actively receiving the fulfillment of all of God's promises to her.

And so the hope that I have is better than the outcome that I want, and it's the same for you. You don't have to talk yourself into hope or fake it. If you don't feel like it, you don't even have to be confident to have the God of heaven move toward you. You simply have to ask. You can come to him honestly. Sharing where you are, sharing where you're tired, but you need hope, and asking him to fill you with what you can't fix up for yourself.

Here's a question I invite you to take to God today:

God of Hope, where am I trying to force or fake something, when you want to fill me with something instead? Help me receive more hope from you.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

Connect with Jen on Instagram