Recover Your Hope and Joy

Downcast To Up-cast!

I cannot find peace, or remember happiness.
I tell myself, “I am finished!
I can’t count on the Lord to do anything for me.” Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed.  Lamentations 3:17-20 ESV

Can you relate? Have you ever felt so emotionally fatigued and trapped by the weight of your circumstances that you thought “I am finished!”  Maybe you have been calling out to God but you see no relief or change in sight. You desperately want peace but it seems to evade you. Does it feel as if you are locked-in and someone has thrown away the key to your relief?

Frustration – Anger – Despair!

The truth is we are all vulnerable to discouragement and depression. After preaching and prophesying for 40 years Jeremiah watched his fellow Israelites get taken away into captivity. He gave it his very best and they refused to listen. Now his heart was in anguish over what felt like complete failure and hopelessness. All he could see was trouble and misery. 

​So, what is the answer? How do we move from victim to victory? How does a downcast, weary soul get renewed with hope and strength? What is the key that unlocks the prison of despair?
 
Jeremiah shows us the answer in the next passage. Read it through and notice the progression.

​Jeremiah remembers the nature of His great and all-powerful God. He changes his focus from rehearsing the trouble to the unchanging faithfulness of God. Many times, we are caught in a cycle of despair because our troubles are “all we ever think about”v20. When we make a decision to turn our attention, thoughts and meditation on the Lord, faith is activated and hope restored. This is why “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1
 
Downcast to an up-cast! 
 
Let's pray...
​Father, give us a renewed glimpse of your glory that produces an intimate knowledge that with You nothing shall be impossible! Great is Your faithfulness - therefore I have hope! In Jesus name! Amen.

This devotional is part of a collection that can be found in 
30-Days of Strength for a Woman's Heart. 

   
​             Amazon  Review ...
"Great little book! The devotions are short but beautifully written. She uses scripture, a short analogy and a prayer. I feel that every emotion was addressed in the 30 devotionals. I expect to read again in the near future. Very uplifting."