Topic: If Hoping Feels Hard – Daily Devotional by Proverbs 31 Ministries  21 MARCH  2024

Click HERE for Previous MESSAGES

If Hoping Feels Hard

August 21, 2024

“My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.” Psalm 31:10 (NIV)

We don’t often talk about the grief that comes with disappointment.

Grief does not just accompany a physical death; it also accompanies the death of a relationship or a dream. Grief signals that something has not turned out the way we want.

Often we are expected to move on too quickly — but in our grief, we are actually more available to experience comfort and kindness. Even more, we are available to experience God’s presence.

In my own past grief, the previous two sentences would not have made me feel better … at least not immediately. Knowing God could comfort me in my pain was not the problem; I knew He could change my situation, yet He’d chosen not to. This honestly made me question if He was the loving God I thought He was.

But God can handle our honesty.

Have you read any of David’s psalms? Just look at today’s key verse: “My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak” (Psalm 31:10).

David often started his prayers with honest emotion, then eventually turned his thoughts back to what is true about God. When he was experiencing heartbreak or drowning in fear, he wrote about those experiences — then reminded himself of God’s comfort and kindness. He recalled what God had already done in his life and clung to hope that God would rescue him again.

We see this in Psalm 31 if we skip down a few verses: “How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you” (Psalm 31:19, NIV).

We can be honest about the pain of disappointment and hopeful that God can change it.

But we struggle to hold this tension. Hoping seems scary when we’ve felt constantly disappointed. When we’ve experienced repeated losses and letdowns, believing there is good ahead seems impossible. We forget God moves outside our framework of understanding.

Friend, if you’re struggling with disappointment today, can I invite you to bring it to God like David did? Start by being honest. Let it all out, and tell Him how you feel. But don’t stop there. Declare out loud who He is and what He has done in your life.

Then dare to allow hope to enter in.

Our hope is in the Lord — not only for things we can imagine but also for things beyond our wildest dreams.

God, I confess my disappointment to You now. I come before You with every honest emotion, question and doubt I carry. And I ask You to show me who You are. Remind me what is true about You, even if my circumstances don’t seem to line up with that truth. Help me to hold both honesty and hope together. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

ALSO READ: CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER ⊗ OPEN HEAVEN ⊗ JOEL OSTEEN DEVOTIONAL⊗ ABOVE ONLY ⊗ OUR DAILY BREAD ⊗ SEEDS OF DESTINY ⊗ JOYCE MEYER DEVOTIONAL ⊗ RHAPSODY OF REALITIES ⊗ JOHN HAGEE ⊗ MFM DAILY DEVOTIONAL ⊗UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHESTDCLM DAILY MANNA ⊗ JOHN PIPER DEVOTIONAL ⊗