FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 37, September 11, 2008

O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived. . .I have become a laughingstock all day long, Jeremiah 20:7.

Hopelessness

I imagine the folks in the North End of Hartford woke up Sunday morning with an utter sense of hopelessness. The day before, after the annual West Indies Day parade down Main Street in Hartford (an event I attended with three others from our church as we were engaged in street evangelism), seven young people were shot and one was killed. Two were ten year old boys and the rest were teens. That Sunday afternoon another four were shot and wounded. The top prayer request we get from the people there is, “Pray for our safety.”

Hopelessness is a terrible thing. Jeremiah the prophet, in the passage noted above is battling it. He well remembers his call to the prophetic office, where Yahweh said to him, “Before I formed you, I knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” When Jeremiah said, “Lord I am too young. You have the wrong guy.” Yahweh says, “Everywhere I send you, you shall go; and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” Jeremiah 1:5-8. Jeremiah began his preaching ministry in 526 B.C. during the reign of Josiah when Judah was experiencing a wonderful revival after many years under wicked Manasseh. However the revival was short lived and the people were recalcitrant and apostate. Their sister Israel played the harlot on every high mountain and under every green tree, but faithless Judah went further, polluting the land and committing adultery with stones and trees, Jeremiah 3:6ff. So Jeremiah has his work cut out for him and it doesn’t help that his message is a very unpopular one. He is to tell faithless Judah that even if Moses or Samuel were on their behalf to appear before Yahweh, He would still send them away. Jeremiah was to tell them that they were destined to death, the sword, famine, and captivity, Jeremiah 15:2. And when Pashur the High Priest had Jeremiah arrested, beaten, and placed in stocks (Jeremiah 20:1ff) Jeremiah lost it. He complains to the Lord that He has deceived him, allowing him to become a laughingstock to his contemporaries. It gets worse. There are numerous death threats, imprisonments, and beatings. See Jeremiah 26, 32, 37, 38, 43.

The hopeless person says, “God, surely you have deserted me. You have placed me in circumstances I cannot handle. You have left me to my own devices. You obviously have no intention of bringing good from this. How can you? This is impossible.” The hopeless person says, “Man, the devil, fate are against me. They are resisting, thwarting God’s plan for my life.” The hopeless person is so caught up in the moment that he cannot see his way out of the problem.

Why does hopelessness come? Are you in a present state of hopelessness? It comes because you begin in the wrong place. The natural tendency for man is to begin with his circumstances, his own weaknesses, rather than with God. Isn’t this what Jeremiah is doing? All he can think about is how bad things are. He cannot see God. He won’t see God. Where does this thinking take you? It will lead to self-destruction, my friend. Do we not see this with King Saul, after jealousy gets the best of him, after he has heard one too many times, “Saul has slain his thousands. David has slain his ten thousands.” Saul was on a long, slow road to hopelessness and destruction, a sordid affair which eventually reduced him to seeking the advice of a medium for his future, soon losing his life. You may be outwardly doing the right things- reading your Bible, going to church, serving the Lord; but inwardly you are planning, developing your own escape from your circumstances, doing things which will only lead to further despair. Like the older, single woman who wants desperately to be married, who believes time is running out, and falls for the first man who shows interest in her, forgetting that he is not a Christian nor Kingdom minded; like the man who wishes to relieve his financial problem by jumping at the first “get rich quick scheme” he sees; so it is with those who fall into hopelessness. They are plunging themselves into even greater difficulty, into a self-destruction from which they will find it difficult to extricate themselves.

What are you to do when given to hopelessness? You must first call it what it is- sin. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Without faith it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:1, 6. The question is this- in what are you trusting? Are you trusting yourself, your circumstances, or God who raises the dead? Second, you must confess your doubt in God’s goodness, that He works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, Romans 8:28. Paul says hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one hope for what he sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it, Romans 8:24, 25. To hope in God does not mean, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow for the picnic.” Biblical hope is founded on certainty, the fact that God cannot lie, that He will bring good in everything for His children.

And third, you need to affirm certain truths to offset the hopelessness you confess. When you say, “God has deserted me,” you need quickly to counter with, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5. When you say, “God has put me into an impossible situation,” you should respond with, “No temptation has overtaken me but such is common to man, and God with the temptation or trial will provide a way of escape, that I may be able to endure it,” I Corinthians 10:13. When you are prone to say, “I am left to my own devices, I must take things into my hands,” you should come back with, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ,” Philippians 1:6. When you feel like saying, “God has no intention of bringing good from this situation. It is impossible,” you ought to remind yourself that God promises to work good in every circumstance, Romans 8:28. And when it appears man, fate, or the devil is resisting God’s work in you, then remember Jesus’ words to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, that you should bear much fruit, and that your fruit should remain,” John 15:16. In other words, you must take yourself in hand. You must preach the truth to your soul. You must not allow heresy and unbelief to enter your mind and heart. And this is possible because you have the indwelling Christ who always lives to make intercession for you. With the father of the demon possessed boy, you can say, “I believe. Help me in my unbelief,” and He promises to meet you. He says everything is possible for him who believes. Do you believe God?

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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