“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Introduction :
Discouraged?? Hopeless?? Depressed?? Have you lost hope?? These are all feelings that we have from time to time. Occasionally it falls on us and we don’t even know why. But what is the source of discouragement?
Discouragement is an emotion related to certain events:
(1) When we experience the loss of something important, for example:
- the death of a friend or a member of the family, or even a favorite animal;
- the loss of our employment or position;
- the loss of respect in front of others
- the decline of your health and welfare.
(2) When we sin, in particular a habitual sin: maybe telling lies, alcoholism, anger, bitterness or sexual impurity. With every sin comes the feeling that God is not happy with us. We must know, therefore, the solution in God’s plan for the forgiveness of our sins.
(3) When we encounter something impossible: when we have tried everything and looked everywhere for a solution, but our resources and strength are not enough to resolve the difficulty.
If you continue in your discouragement, without hope, you will only fall into deeper depression and eventually hopelessness. When you believe that there is no possibility, or that something is too hard, you have lost all hope.
But how can you renew hope? We will be looking at God’s solutions for your loss, for your sin and for your impossible situations. But before this, we must look at the foundation of your hope. You must understand that God gives us hope through His word.
Man’s ideas are not enough. You need to see and believe what God has revealed in His word.
Romans 15:4 “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Psalms 119:28 “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!”
May the Lord give you encouragement and hope through His word today.
The Foundation of our Hope: The Word of God
During the time of Jeremiah the prophet, the Israelites were the object of the wrath of God. They were sent by God into captivity in Babylon. However, in the middle of this chastisement, God wanted to assure them that this time of distress was in His perfect plan for them: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Never forget that there is always hope in God’s plan for you. God himself has permitted the situations surrounding your life. To renew hope, realize:
- God can change the bad into good.
- Impossibilities are possibilities for God
- Lost things direct us to God who alone can fill the emptiness in the heart.
- Sin has a solution in the salvation (forgiveness and sanctification) found in Jesus Christ.
1. God can change the bad into good.
The book of Lamentations in the Old Testament pictures for us the extreme afflictions endured by God’s people because of their sin. Many were at the point of despair:
Lamentations 3:17-20 “And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.”
Nevertheless, in the middle of their thoughts, they found a reason to hope–they understood that God’s loving loyalty can never be exhausted.
Lamentations 3:21-26 “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
Do you know that behind your difficulties is a God who is good and who has a plan for your life?
Psalm 138:8 “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”
Think also about Joseph. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, slandered by the wife of his master and forgotten in prison. However, God never forgot him. Later, Joseph explained how God permitted those trials in his life to do something greater:
Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul expressed the same idea:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
You should never underestimate the power and goodness of God. Listen to what Joni Eareckson Tada said after more than 46 years of suffering caused by an accident that left her a paraplegic. Also, she is undergoing treatment for cancer.
« Oh Jesus, thank you for saying “no” for a request for physical healing; you really knew what you were doing many years ago. . .(the “no”) meant that many sins have been purged from life…(the “no”) has meant that I trust more in your grace…and this has made me to love you even more…and I would not exchange this for any amount of time walking. This is the profound healing, the true healing.” (From her testimony given during the Strange Fire Conference. http://www.gty.org/resources/sermon-series/325/strange-fire-conference).
2. Impossibilities are possibilities for God
Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
When it seems that God is not responding to our prayers or that his response is “no,” we think that we know more than God. We must trust God. Do not listen to the lies of the devil. Satan works to destroy you and to discourage you, but God works now to establish you, to assure you that His plan is perfect. Listen to what He has said: “I know the plans that I have for you…” Trust in God’s perfect plan, a plan for welfare and not for evil.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
3. Only God is sufficient to fill the emptiness of your heart.
People in this world are searching to drown their worries in alcohol, drugs, immorality, food, money and possessions. But all of these things are in of themselves vain and empty. They promise everything, but offer nothing permanent.
Jeremiah 17:13 “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.”
Jeremiah 14:22 “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.”
Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Psalm 73.25 “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.”
You must remember that there is a difference between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven.
Matthew 6.19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
4. Sin has a solution in the salvation (forgiveness and sanctification) that is found in Jesus Christ.
Maybe you are searching for the truth. You know that this world cannot help you and that you need something more solid, like an anchor for your soul. Before salvation, believers were without hope :
Ephesians 2.12b-13 “having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
1Timothy 1.1 “…Jesus Christ, which is our hope”
You must see that in yourself you have no hope, but in God and His word we all have hope and there is always a solution. There once was a young lady that went with her mother to visit a number of pastors to find a solution to the many problems in her life. She always began by telling the pastors that life was not worth living, that she was horrible and evil, etc. The pastors responded in the same way: oh, you are not horrible, you are not evil, etc. But one day a pastor treated her comments seriously. Instead of having sympathy for her sins, he confronted her by saying, “You think that you are horrible and that you are evil and clearly you don’t think your life is worth living; what have you done that is so horrible and evil that you have thoughts like this?” The young lady began to pour out her heart. It was the first time anyone had confronted her with her sin. When she saw that someone was treating her sins biblically, she had hope: hope that she could change.
God gave hope to Adam and Eve just after they sinned in the garden of Eden. Today as well, God asks they we approach him:
Isaiah 1.18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
John the Baptist said this when he saw the Lord Jesus:
John 1.29 “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
God also wants to give you hope today: there is a solution to your sin: the blood of the lamb. Jesus died in your place on the cross because of your sins. Repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ that you too can be saved. Jesus himself gives the reason for his coming into this world:
John 12:46 “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.”
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
John 8:24 “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
Maybe your time of discouragement was a time for you to see that God has a plan for you, a plan for your welfare, a plan to give you hope. May the Lord help you see this hope which is found in Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Hope is possible: “to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
— through Jesus Christ: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1.27