Hope - Source of wholeness

Just like laughter leads to healing, so also does “hope.” In my many years of counseling practice, one of the more productive questions I’d ask my clients was, “How could the pain you’re experiencing be a good thing.? What can you learn through the adversity you are experiencing? Why is this good for you?” Those sound like very cold and unfeeling questions. And they would be if I hadn’t walked through the pain with them first so that they understood I empathized with them.

Those questions can lead to hope when the situation looks hopeless. In the context of the totality of Scripture, the Loving God who is all-powerful, who actively works in human events, could have somehow alleviated the adversity. So if that didn’t happen, then He promises to cause everything that happens to His children who are walking with Him to be used for our good.

Consequently, as a person walks through their pain, feeling it fully so as to avert repression, there comes a time when a decision must be made – either be a victim or be a victor. A victim looks at the circumstances and is overwhelmed by them or at best assumes a survivor mode.
How can one be a victor in a hopeless situation? Romans 15:13 tells us, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” AS our focus changes from the situation to searching how God wants to use this for our good, hope can bring healing. And peace. And joy.

I sometimes get that question asked of me. A few months ago, as I lay in a Denver hospital experiencing a loss of strength in my legs – lying there for hours waiting for the doctor to give his diagnosis, telling Theresa, “If he doesn’t come very soon, they’ll have to admit me to the psychiatric ward.” “It was then that Theresa asked, “Why is this good for you, Ray?” She tells me that if looks could kill, her burial would have emminent.

She got a kick out of sharing this story at my birthday party this week, because the people there have heard that question from me at some time or other.

May the God of hope (not the hopeful or hopeless circumstance) fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.