Some lies that make it harder to hope:
- It's all about what I can do.
So if I can’t fix the situation, or I mess up, it’s
hopeless.
- It's all about what another human can do.
So if they won’t change or can’t do something, it’s
hopeless.
- God can't.
If God can’t change people, if God can’t provide, if God can’t
heal, if God can’t rescue – why hope?
- God isn't good.
So why should I expect good?
Why should I trust that whatever He does, even if He doesn’t grant my
desires, is good? Why not try to make my
own way? Why not disobey? Why not quit waiting?
- If it hasn't yet, it never will.
If Jesus hasn’t returned yet, He won’t. If my friend’s brother hasn’t accepted Jesus
as his Savior yet, he won’t. If my
friend hasn’t gotten pregnant yet, she won’t.
If my friend hasn’t been healed yet, she won’t. If my friend doesn’t have a job yet, he won’t.
- I know how this ends.
Good is impossible.
God can’t do the impossible. I
know everything, including the future. I
have thought of every possible outcome, and know at least which ones are
actually not possible (and they are all the good ones).
- I can't continue.
This is too hard. I’ve
lasted as long as I can. I’m going to literally
explode if nothing has changed by tomorrow.
- It isn't worth it.
This God-journey is not enough to compensate for the tension
and disappointments of hoping. Even if I
get what I want, it isn’t worth the emotional investment in the mean time.
- God didn't really say...
That He answers prayers, that Jesus is coming back, that I
am a new creation, that Sarah would have a son, and other personal-specific
things like that.
- I know everything that is going on.
God isn't working anywhere that I don't know about. So whatever I see is it. And if I don’t see what I want, God hasn’t
even started yet. Also, the thing I care
about is all that God cares about. He
isn’t trying to do anything I haven’t thought of.
- Prayer doesn't matter.
If it’s all I can do, I’m not contributing to a
situation. I shouldn’t bother with
prayer. I should find something useful
to do. Prayer isn’t accomplishing
anything. Prayer isn’t powerful.
- Perseverance is foolish.
Insanity is doing the same thing expecting different
results. I should cut my losses. Quit digging the hole I’m in.
- Whatever will be, will be, so it doesn't matter what I do.
I might as well not think about it much. Or feel about it much. Or even try to do the right thing.
- Pain is more relevant than love.
So I should protect myself.
God’s love doesn’t matter as much as my pain. My love for others doesn’t matter as much as
my pain (or the way that hope could cause *them* pain).
- Jesus dying for me is insufficient to communicate His love
to me.
He doesn’t really love me.
He hasn’t proven He loves me. If
He really loved me, He would do what I want and when I want.
- Jesus' resurrection isn't relevant to my life today.
It doesn’t matter that God raises the dead. It doesn’t matter that God does the
unexpected. It doesn’t matter that God
keeps His promises. It doesn’t matter
that Jesus is alive and ready to help.
- God is stingy.
He withholds good from me when I need it, or deserve
it. Giving me Jesus wasn’t enough. After sending His most precious Son to suffer
and die for me, He decided to keep back His lesser gifts.
- People don't change.
Me included. What you
see is what you get. I can’t get
better. I might as well accept who I am
this side of eternity.
- God will only do good for me if I deserve it.
So work harder. Or
give up, because let’s face it, I sin a lot.
- I am defined by my failure.
I will never change from the sin-enslaved person I’m used
to. I will always be clumsy in serving
God. That’s how people see me. That’s how I see me. That’s how God sees me. He wouldn’t want to use me. I’m a waste of time.
- I have messed up too many times.
God has spent too much mercy on me. He has to trust me to stop messing up, before
He forgives me. I don’t want any more of
God’s charity; it’s embarrassing.
- My old fleshly nature is stronger than Christ in me.
I am doomed to keep on sinning until I die. God understands that I’m flesh, and doesn’t
have plans that involve me using the power of God indwelling me.
- Evil will always prosper.
God won’t judge.
- God abandons His children.
Hard times come. I
mess up. Other people attack. God backs off and leaves me when He’s busy or
mad or I haven’t done the right things.
- God lets me continue to make foolish choices unhindered
and uncorrected.
If I choose to reject Him, He’ll leave me alone and let me
reap the consequences. He’ll let me
experience the kind of life I’d have if I’d never tried to follow Him. It will be easier to sin than to try to be
good. I won’t feel guilty. No one will confront me.
- God doesn't have a plan to redeem my mistakes.
They’re there, just ugly blots and painful memories. No purpose.
No beauty. No opportunity to
glorify God. I won’t be the woman who is
forgiven much, so loves much.
- God doesn't have a plan to redeem the effects of others'
sin on me.
The effects are only pain.
They don’t teach me. They don’t
show me how God has worked love and forgiveness in me. They don’t point me in the direction God has
good things planned for me. These
relationships with sinners who sinned against me are irreconcilable.
- It's OK to give up on God.
It isn’t a big deal.
He meant something abstract when He said to trust Him, seek Him, wait on
Him, walk by faith, believe His words. He
didn’t mean anything that should impact the way I actually think or feel or
act.
- God lies.
He makes promises, and doesn’t keep them. So if it doesn’t look like He’s being
faithful, why hold out?
- It's going to take too long.
God won't give grace for waiting.
- It's going to hurt too much.
God won't be present in the suffering.
- All God does is hurt me (even if it is for my good).
He never gives me what I ask for. He is a Father who gives His sons stones when
they ask for bread, and snakes instead of fish.
He takes away, but He does not give.
- It's selfish to hope to receive my desires.
Since the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, it
never wants good things anyway.
- It is right to be scared of God's 'no'.
‘Yes’ is the only path to happiness. God won’t give grace for the life He actually
wants for me.
- God only cares about "big" things.
My little sins, or my fears, or my needs for the day aren’t
important enough for Him to intervene. I’m
on my own in those. Especially if they’re
just things I “want”. He might have made
and fulfilled promises for important people like Abraham and Noah and David and
Jesus, but not me. I’m not worth it to
Him.
- God isn't listening.
Why ask?
- I can't hear God when He speaks.
He isn’t answering this specific question, and I must have
missed it even if He did, because I’ve been listening, and everything else I
knew I heard must have been in my imagination.
- I'm the only one trying.
No one else cares about serving God. No one cares about waiting on Him. No one is trying to pray diligently. Everyone else is essentially saying that it
isn’t worth it, that it isn’t possible, that I’m foolish.
- My momentary feelings are representative of reality.
If I don’t feel hopeful, there isn’t reason to hope. I may have felt hopeful an hour ago, but
maybe this is how I know that hope has run out.
My feelings won’t change. At
least, they won’t change anymore, again, this time.
If you think about it, the answers to these lies are amazing truths:
My life is not limited by what I can do or by what others can do. My sin doesn't limit God. With God nothing is impossible.
God is good. He does things I don't see coming. He answers long-hopes. He does sudden and unexpected good. He loves me. He gives good gifts.
God is alive, and active in my life. God is able to make Himself heard. I am not alone.
My feelings can change. I can change.
God is faithful to do what He says. God hears prayers and uses them to do mighty things in His world. God is an intimately personal God who sees sparrows fall, and there is no little thing in His hand. He consistently uses things that seem little to us, in order to prove that it is Him working and He is gloriously powerful.
God rewards those who diligently seek Him. He commands us to seek Him, to wait on Him, to walk by faith and not by sight. A hope fulfilled brings merriment.
Love is greater. God's grace and mercy produce love in us. Love casts out fear. Loving God and loving others are the greatest commandments. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Trusting God is worth it. Loving is worth it. Love is never wasted.
God puts some desires in our hearts, and it is not wrong for us to join Him in wanting good for ourselves and others. God gives grace to continue trusting Him. He gives grace to do good and not evil. He disciplines those He loves, to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It is hard to kick against His goads. Sin does not satisfy. Satisfaction comes from God.
God works all things together for good, even when I'm not getting what I want. He has a plan for redemption of the bad in our lives. God will put an end to wickedness. The meek will inherit the earth. The pure in heart are blessed.
These are truths that I speak to others to encourage their hope and faith, to give them a chance to see their situations with our God included. If you have a friend who is struggling with hope, try reminding them of the things on this list that are most important to you.
For me, maintaining hope in God has forced me to focus on these and other truths about God. Beginning to actively believe these things is transforming my life (how I pray and the choices I make), pushing the boundaries of the things included in my hope list.
