Have You Been Buying Into the Lie of Hopelessness?

There seems to be an epidemic of hopelessness these days. A pipeline of darkness has seeped into the heavenly places. It has tainted the truth of God’s love and the hope we have in Him.

Believers everywhere have embraced the lie. It’s a lie that results in us feeling like failures and I’ll explain why.

The lie says we aren’t strong enough, good enough, or worthy enough. Sure maybe there’s partial truth there because our strength, righteousness, and worth are all found in Jesus. The enemy has found a way to deceive us by getting us to look to ourselves for each of these qualities. Instead of tapping into Jesus, we are trying to strain it out of our own efforts.

We are setting ourselves up for failure folks because our own efforts don’t yield the results that God wants. Instead, our own efforts strive to build platforms, positions, and profit in a world that is fading away. It’s a world that’s unforgiving and it doesn’t play fair.

We work ourselves to exhaustion and clamor for an elusive lie that if we try hard enough we will finally be at a place that says, “Yes, you ARE good enough”.

But it’s misleading because it was invented by the enemy to keep us distracted, disgruntled, and deceived.

How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians 3:3 NLT

Our Lord desires for us to become more like His Son, to be sanctified, and to yield the fruit of the Spirit. He wants us reaching the world with His message. Nothing more. The thing is that sanctification and yielding the fruit of His spirit are natural occurrences as you grow in the Lord. They are not things that can be checked off your to-do list.

But what happens if you confuse what God wants with what the world demands? Hopelessness. Failure. Defeat.

Do you recognize the cycle?

It’s endless.

We Become Victims Of Our Own Hopelessness

It’s dangerous to think that we can be deceived enough to believe there is no longer hope. That we’ve failed so much that our situations are no longer redeemable.

I’m saddened to hear that recently some prominent men of faith have succumbed to this very hopelessness and tragically took their own lives. While I think there was more to their stories and struggles with depression, ultimately, it’s a feeling of hopelessness leads to one ending their own life.

When unbelievers commit suicide I can’t help but feel sadness that they didn’t experience the hope that was offered to them.

However, there is always hope with Jesus.

I truly believe that failure, defeat, and hopelessness are nothing more than tactics of the enemy that are conjured up to ruin our witness and immobilize us.

If we succumb to defeat, we become ineffective. Armor up and soldier on! Share on X

Fighting By His Strength

But what does that strength look like and how on earth do we tap into it?

It’s the same strength that David had when he faced Goliath as a young boy. The giant hurled insults and instead of David shrinking back and letting someone else handle it, he volunteered. He did this because he had faith that the Lord would do the fighting for him.

“The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”

1 Samuel 17:37 NLT

David did not fear because he was able to recall the other times that the Lord came to his defense and gave him victory over his circumstances. He then declared it!

Just as it should be with us.

We see the mountain before us or the Goliath standing in our way, and we throw up our hands and say “I can’t”. Oh but friend, Jesus sure can.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 NLT

You can overcome the feelings of defeat. You can be victorious because it is His hand that makes us able.

Life is Imperfect, and We Are Too!

We aren’t going to get it right 100% of the time. We are imperfect people clamoring around in an imperfect world. You will make mistakes but God says we can get back up again. We can keep going.

We can give ourselves grace because Jesus gives us grace.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a get out of jail free card. We still have to face consequences but we have the assurance that if we mess up that our convictions will lead us to the cross where forgiveness is waiting. We only need to ask for it.

But we can only ask for it if we are willing to admit it.

Perfectionism can make it super hard to crawl to the cross. Pride’s posture is stiff-necked and unyielding.

Oh but we miss out on abundant grace when we deny sin.

Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Zechariah 4:6 NLT

Tackling life in our own strength is exhausting and eventually you will end up depleted. The Lord has an endless reservoir of what we need and His is a supply that never expires.

Did I mention that freedom is found there too?

It is! We can be free from the lies that satan force feeds us and claim victory in the name of Jesus!

Are You Willing?

A great way to take some time for yourself so that you can hear from the Lord is to rest.

Yes, I know. Rest can be a dirty word for so many.

But the truth is that it’s necessary. God rested on the seventh day after all. Our bodies and spirits need time for rejuvenation so that we can endure what comes next.

That leads me to my awesome feature by Maree Dee from Embracing the Unexpected.

In her post “How To Rest In The Middle of The Unexpected” she delves into the importance of rest and the best ways to avoid burnout.

>>Click Here To Read The Featured Post<<

Thank you for taking the time to read today and I hope you get the chance to pop on over to Maree Dee’s!