Staying Hopeful In Spite of Life’s Challenges

Ever have days when you can't seem to shake off feeling discouraged by life's unrelenting problems? For some reason they seem to really crowd in during the midlife and beyond years. It's very common for marriage dissatisfaction to surface. Regrets and disappointments pile up. Finances are a pressure with retirement funding concerns looming larger. Our faith in God can also start to waiver. And what about aging parents or struggling adult children? The list can get quite lengthy! So...how do you stay hopeful in spite of the hard realities you're dealing with? I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts about this. Feel free to leave a comment below. One critical element (among many) in staying hopeful is training our minds to think that way. There is a strong gravitational pull to focus on how bad things are, but that doesn't do us any good. The real benefit comes from viewing our circumstances differently. The writer of Psalm 118 gives some suggestions about staying hopeful. He centers our thinking around God's character in very practical terms:

• God is good (118:1). In the midst of a dire situation, that fact seems debatable. "How could a good God allow this 'heartbreak' to happen?" is what we think. That's where we must work to retrain our minds. When Moses said to God, "I pray You, show me Your glory!," do you know what God said? He responded by saying "I will make all My goodness pass before you...! (Ex. 33:18-19). His glory is tied to His goodness! That's worth pondering.
• God is for you (118:6). That fact doesn't feel right either given the pain we may be experiencing. Yet, it is a bedrock truth repeated throughout the Scriptures. "The Lord is for me, I will not fear."  God told Moses that "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Ex. 33:14).
• God answers your prayers (118:5). We hear this often, but it is difficult to see God's answers in the midst of a crisis. Timing issues are big here. We want answers in hours or days while God is working so deeply that it often takes longer. Our friend Moses encountered deep disappointment in God's lack of answering prayer on his timetable. This is what Moses said, "...O Lord...why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all" (Ex. 5:22-23). God's timing came later and ultimately brought the deliverance promised.
• God wants you to live for Him (118:17). "I shall not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord." If we're honest, there are times when we think, "Lord, just take me home! My life is too difficult!" Your life has enormous value which should not be underestimated. Living for the Lord, experiencing His goodness, and experiencing hope are some of the works you can tell others about.

Telling yourself these four points daily for the next week can bring renewal to your heart. Give it a try and see what happens. This is not to oversimplify the severity of what is going on. Rather, the point is by redirecting your mind to the character of God, you bring in a potent offense to dealing with hard realities of your situation.