I like to define Hope as the "Joyful and confident expectation of good, anticipation of good." When studying the subject of Hope, I find that it is important to know what it is and what it isn’t. Today I want to share 6 symptoms of hopelessness. If like me, you Hope for something, sometimes your heart may be filled with hopelessness. If you suffer from any of these or any combination, the antidote is Hope! Here are the symptoms:
6 symptoms of hopelessness:
- Doubt - you are hesitant about something, you consider it questionable or unlikely. You hesitate to believe that something will really happen.
- Disbelief - the inability or refusal to believe or accept what you hope for as true.
- Fear - a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. My favorite definition of fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real.”
- Fact or sharp focus on reality - the inability to see the big picture. The paralyzing fear of being stuck in a moment, unable to see beyond what’s in front of you.
- Discouragement - you are deprived of courage, hope, or confidence. You find yourself disheartened and dispirited.
- Pessimism - the tendency to see, anticipate, or emphasize only bad or undesirable outcomes, results, conditions, problems, etc. It’s worse when you talk others to join you in your pessimism.
The same way we can get people to “join us” in our Hopelessness, we can invite them to Hope. We can’t give what we don’t have, so we need to tap into the true source of Hope first (Almighty God). God always invites us to change our perspective, to look up and see things from His eternal perspective. It’s wise to grab a hold of His promises and focus on them instead of focusing on the symptoms of hopelessness.
I bless you with these words of life:
“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.”
Romans 15:13 (ESV)
- Can you identify any symptoms of hopelessness in action in your life right now?
- Which area of your life can benefit from Hope?
- How can you change your perspective so you can grab hold of Hope?
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