What Happens If You Lack Hope?
Depression
Psalm 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Prov 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision (or revelation), the people perish.
If you've ever suffered from depression, you will know what a downward spiral it can be, and how quickly it can sneak up on you and drag you down into its miry depths. It starts with you feeling downcast, but when it takes hold it has various physiological effects, such as insomnia, tiredness, exhaustion, digestive problems and so on, similar to the sickness of heart that Proverbs 13:12 describes. In Proverbs 29:18, the word for vision could equally be translated revelation. Hope comes from believing what God has revealed about the future. Without revelation what basis for hope is there other than our current circumstances? And if our current circumstances do not inspire hope we are lost. In difficult circumstances, a lack of revelation can lead to a sense of hopelessness, which produces various symptoms of emotional and physical sickness, and ultimately can destroy you.
Christians who have never suffered from depression can be somewhat judgmental of those Christians who do. For depression can seem to be a lack of faith. Why is it that Christians are not more immune from depression? I ask the question, but please don't take it as a rebuke or criticism of those who do.
I think part of the problem is that the Church often teaches a poor understanding of faith and hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1). We gain the assurance part from what the Bible tells us God has done in the past. It shows us that God is good and loving, that he is on our side, that he is powerful, and that he is trustworthy. We also gain some hope from this, for if God shows no favouritism (Rom 2:12), then it is reasonable for us to expect that what he did for people in the past he may do for us also. But if that is all the hope we have, it is incomplete. And in churches that show little expectation of God doing the things today that he did in the Bible, it is even more lacking. To have a healthy hope, there are two key elements that churches often fail to provide. Firstly, we must have a right understanding of what God does today according to his word. Secondly, we must know what the Bible says God will do for us in the future. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, of which about 150 focus primarily on future events. So about 88% focusses on the past, and about 12% on the future. Most churches spend very little time (much less than 12%) teaching about what God will do in the future, and when they do, they usually do so in a very vague and muddled sort of way. Consequently, Christians end up with a hope that is vague and lacking, and faith that is mostly an assurance based on the past, but lacking the hope part. If faith is really the assurance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1), it is more than just trust in God and an assurance of his love and goodness. It is an assurance that what God says about our future is true and reliable.
If your faith is merely an assurance based on the past, but things then happen to you which seem to contradict God's love and goodness towards you, that assurance can quickly evaporate in the face of suffering. Doubts set in and you can easily become like the wave that James speaks of, being blown and tossed by the wind.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
If I may add slightly to James' picture, imagine you're in a sailing boat on that stormy sea. Hebrew 6:19 says 'We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.' Hope is like your anchor, which keeps you firmly moored and facing the wind through the storm, rather than you being swept along and blown onto the rocks. Abraham is a biblical example of this:
Romans 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abraham's circumstances certainly seemed to contradict God's promise to him that he would become the father of many nations. Years later he still had no son, and his wife had reached menopause. And yet, in hope, he believed. His knowledge and experience of God in the past gave him the assurance that God was trustworthy, and so he was able to hold on to what God had said about his future, despite circumstances that suggested otherwise.
Do you know what the Bible says about your future?
Grief
1 Thess 4: 13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
Absolutely key to our Christian hope is an understanding of what happens when we die. I will explore this more fully below, in the section entitled 'What is the substance of our hope?'
Grief describes the set of emotions we feel when we have suffered loss. Although this is usually most intense in the case of bereavement, there are also other losses which cause us to grieve. Grief leaves us with longings for what could have been, and may well provoke the feeling that the best part of our lives has passed. The Christian hope tells us that the best awaits us, although it is not always easy to see that or believe that.
Psalm 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Prov 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision (or revelation), the people perish.
If you've ever suffered from depression, you will know what a downward spiral it can be, and how quickly it can sneak up on you and drag you down into its miry depths. It starts with you feeling downcast, but when it takes hold it has various physiological effects, such as insomnia, tiredness, exhaustion, digestive problems and so on, similar to the sickness of heart that Proverbs 13:12 describes. In Proverbs 29:18, the word for vision could equally be translated revelation. Hope comes from believing what God has revealed about the future. Without revelation what basis for hope is there other than our current circumstances? And if our current circumstances do not inspire hope we are lost. In difficult circumstances, a lack of revelation can lead to a sense of hopelessness, which produces various symptoms of emotional and physical sickness, and ultimately can destroy you.
Christians who have never suffered from depression can be somewhat judgmental of those Christians who do. For depression can seem to be a lack of faith. Why is it that Christians are not more immune from depression? I ask the question, but please don't take it as a rebuke or criticism of those who do.
I think part of the problem is that the Church often teaches a poor understanding of faith and hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1). We gain the assurance part from what the Bible tells us God has done in the past. It shows us that God is good and loving, that he is on our side, that he is powerful, and that he is trustworthy. We also gain some hope from this, for if God shows no favouritism (Rom 2:12), then it is reasonable for us to expect that what he did for people in the past he may do for us also. But if that is all the hope we have, it is incomplete. And in churches that show little expectation of God doing the things today that he did in the Bible, it is even more lacking. To have a healthy hope, there are two key elements that churches often fail to provide. Firstly, we must have a right understanding of what God does today according to his word. Secondly, we must know what the Bible says God will do for us in the future. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, of which about 150 focus primarily on future events. So about 88% focusses on the past, and about 12% on the future. Most churches spend very little time (much less than 12%) teaching about what God will do in the future, and when they do, they usually do so in a very vague and muddled sort of way. Consequently, Christians end up with a hope that is vague and lacking, and faith that is mostly an assurance based on the past, but lacking the hope part. If faith is really the assurance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1), it is more than just trust in God and an assurance of his love and goodness. It is an assurance that what God says about our future is true and reliable.
If your faith is merely an assurance based on the past, but things then happen to you which seem to contradict God's love and goodness towards you, that assurance can quickly evaporate in the face of suffering. Doubts set in and you can easily become like the wave that James speaks of, being blown and tossed by the wind.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
If I may add slightly to James' picture, imagine you're in a sailing boat on that stormy sea. Hebrew 6:19 says 'We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.' Hope is like your anchor, which keeps you firmly moored and facing the wind through the storm, rather than you being swept along and blown onto the rocks. Abraham is a biblical example of this:
Romans 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abraham's circumstances certainly seemed to contradict God's promise to him that he would become the father of many nations. Years later he still had no son, and his wife had reached menopause. And yet, in hope, he believed. His knowledge and experience of God in the past gave him the assurance that God was trustworthy, and so he was able to hold on to what God had said about his future, despite circumstances that suggested otherwise.
Do you know what the Bible says about your future?
Grief
1 Thess 4: 13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
Absolutely key to our Christian hope is an understanding of what happens when we die. I will explore this more fully below, in the section entitled 'What is the substance of our hope?'
Grief describes the set of emotions we feel when we have suffered loss. Although this is usually most intense in the case of bereavement, there are also other losses which cause us to grieve. Grief leaves us with longings for what could have been, and may well provoke the feeling that the best part of our lives has passed. The Christian hope tells us that the best awaits us, although it is not always easy to see that or believe that.