Is There Any Hope for Me? (Decision 4)

June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By Liz Cowen Furman:

 Do you wonder, “Is there any hope for me?” Considering suicide? There IS hope.

 

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my previous post in The Traveler’s Gift series here on our site, about the  Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews, I promised to share with you the fourth decision a person can make to start getting their life to a place they want it to be.  (I encourage you to seek out that book as a resource.)

Although this passage pertains to being more successful in life, when you are feeling depressed and overwhelmed one of the most important “successful” things you can do right now will be to succeed in staying alive.

Instead of letting your troubles overwhelm you, lift them up to God, and ask Him to help change your way of thinking about them, because new thoughts lead to new actions and new hope. And remember, this article is only one part in our series on finding new hope, so do read the other articles in this series.

Decision number four relates to the passage in the book titled I Have a Decided Heart where the character makes this declaration with deliberate new choices:

I have a decided heart. I am passionate about my vision for the future. I will awaken every morning with an excitement about the new day and its opportunity for growth and change. My thoughts and actions will work in a forward motion, never sliding into the dark forest of doubt or the muddy quicksand of self-pity. I will freely give my vision for the future to others, and as they see the belief in my eyes, they will follow me. (Page 88, The Traveler’s Gift)

This may be one of those times when we have to “fake it ‘till we make it.” If you notice, it says I have a DECIDED heart. Meaning we can choose to decide to live with a new outlook. Listen to what the historical character of the book shares with our protagonist (main character).

I have a decided heart. I will not wait.

I know that the purpose of analysis is to come to a conclusion. I have tested the angles. I have measured the probabilities. And now I have made a decision with my heart. I am not timid. I will move now and not look back. What I put off until tomorrow, I will put off until the next day as well. I do not procrastinate. All my problems become smaller when I confront them. If I touch a thistle with caution, it will prick me, but if I grasp it boldly, its spines crumble into dust. I will not wait. I am passionate about my vision for the future. My course has been charted. My destiny is assured. (Page 89, The Traveler’s Gift)

 

I encourage you to take hold of these decisions, and others we have discussed in The Traveler’s Gift. Also, take a few minutes to listen to Andy Andrews description of the Decided Heart himself, in this video:

When you trust God with your future, it’s more than just about positive thinking–it’s about allowing your creator to lead you in new directions, before you give up hope.

Not sure how to find God? Visit GodTest.com.

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Our Posts for the Depressed and Suicidal

May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

by Hope4You (Editor):

In our efforts here at Thinking About Suicide to help save lives, we want our posts easy for you to find if you are feeling depressed and suicidal.

I’ll continue to index many of  our posts with links, as I have below, to help you see the variety of topics we cover and different author viewpoints. If you feel one article hasn’t adequately addressed your feelings or questions, we hope you will read other articles and viewpoints to round out your view of what we have to offer.

As the sunflower turns to the sun, turn your mind toward hope, help and life. Image by Irish_Eyes

As the sunflower turns to the sun, turn your mind toward hope, help and life. Image by Irish_Eyes

DEPRESSED? SUICIDAL? There is hope and help.

Helpful Tips for the Clinically Depressed: Author James Watkins struggles with being clinically depressed, and recently wrote a letter to a friend who also struggles.

PHYSICAL CAUSES

Treatment for Depression; Seasonal Affective Disorder and Nutritional Deficits (Wells): Treatment for depression should include addressing nutritional deficits. Also, Seasonal Affective Disorder causes depression in some.

Don’t Give Up and Commit Suicide: Check Your Physical Health (Wells): Thinking you should give up and commit suicide? Know that suicidal feelings may be caused by physical problems that can be corrected.

Bipolar Disorder Can Influence a Suicide Attempt (O’Connor)

EMOTIONAL CAUSES

You Can Survive Holiday Blues (Shepherd): Are you wondering if you can survive the holiday blues? Feeling a bit depressed post-holiday?

TEEN DEPRESSION

Teens Thinking About Suicide (Wells): Left untreated, depression can lead to teens thinking about suicide, and untreated depression is the number one cause of teen suicide.

STEPS TO HOPE

Is There Hope? Take Action (Decision 3) (Furman, Is There Hope? series): Decision 3 from the Traveler’s Gift, by Andy Andrews.

Depression and Suicide Links (Gordon) by a marriage and family therapist, excerpt from Too Soon to Say Goodbye, Healing and Hope for the Suicide Victims and Survivors.

SUPPORT

When Suicide Seems Like the Only Option : When suicide seems like the only option, having someone walk with you through your struggles can give you hope for the future.

When Suicide Seems the Only Option (2): A friend of Peggy’s shares hope for those who think suicide seems the only option.

 SIGNIFICANCE

Long-term Depression and Thoughts of Suicide (Wells): Do you struggle with long-term depression and at times feel insignificant? God says you are significant AND valuable.

Helping Students Understand Suicidal Thoughts (Kosman):  When talking to teens at a high school, we discussed suicidal thoughts, but also how unique and special each of those teens are.

Why Not Commit Suicide When I Have Nothing To Offer? (Copen): on chronic pain and illness, and still being able to make a difference in others’ lives.

OVERCOMING SHAME

Japanese Students – Please do not Kill Yourself (Shepherd)

OVERCOMING GRIEF

Grief and Suicidal Thoughts: Loss of a Baby (Kosman) Sometimes grief and suicidal thoughts go hand-in-hand, and the loss of a baby may seem too great to bear. But God is there to comfort you.

Lost a Loved One? A Grief Lesson on ‘Firsts’ (Butts, 10 Things I’ve Learned About Grief series): the first year of ‘firsts’ in missing a loved one can tempt some to think about suicide.

OVERCOMING PTSD (MILITARY)

Army Suicide Prevention: Faith and Counseling Help (Monetti): Military life presents unique marital challenges for the warrior and his or her family in an already stress-ridden society, but many army suicide casualties can be prevented.

FAITH & DEPRESSION

FAITH––the Suicide Vaccine (Suicide Prevention): A pharmacist suggests a different kind of ‘vaccine’ for suicide prevention. We also encourage you to visit our sister site, GodTest.com to learn more about Christian faith, and also visit our site FindingGodDaily.com which addresses applying faith to many tough issues in life.

We welcome your comments and suggestions about topics we may not yet have addressed. I will do a separate roundup page for articles meant for survivors, in particular for family members who have lost loved ones to suicide.

Not all of our posts on depression and suicide  are listed here yet (this is officially our 100th post!) so do use our tabs at the top of the page and our Search box to find more articles here while I also attempt to add to this particular list. Many of our writers have felt as you do, while others have lost family members to the tragedy of suicide.

All our posts are written by caring people who desperately want to encourage you to go on living.

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Is There Hope? Take Action (Decision 3)

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By Liz Cowen Furman:

Don’t give up: change your thinking and take action, one small step at a time.

From our Is There Hope? series (Click to see Decisions 1 & 2). Material from The Travelers Gift used by permission from Thomas Nelson and Andy Andrews as we hope to save lives–including yours.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Over a lifetime there are moments when one can feel desperate enough to even be thinking about suicide. There are so many things Satan uses to send a person to the brink of losing hope. And a life without hope is the one that may ponder suicide.

In the previous post of this series, I promised to share with you the third decision a person can make to start getting their life to a place they want it to be. If you recall I encouraged you to start reading (new, used or from your library) Andy Andrews’ book The Travelers Gift. 

Decision number 3 calls us to move. I Am a Person of Action. Here is the description by the character in the book:

Beginning today, I will create a new future by creating a new me. No longer will I dwell in a pit of despair, moaning over squandered time and lost opportunity. I can do nothing about the past. My future is immediate. I will grasp it in both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act! I seize this moment. I choose now.  I am a person of action. (Page 69, The Traveler’s Gift)

The rest of his advice is wonderful and completely encouraging. Here is how it ends:

I am a person of action. I am daring. I am courageous. Fear no longer has a place in my life. For too long, fear has outweighed my desire to make things better for my family. Never again! I have exposed fear as a vapor, an impostor who never had any power over me in the first place! I do not fear opinion, gossip, or the idle chatter of monkeys for all are the same to me. I do not fear failure, for in my life, failure is a myth. Failure only exists for the person who quits. I do not quit.

I am courageous. I am a leader. I seize this moment. I choose now. (Page 70, The Traveler’s Gift)

I understand that when a person feels despondent, depressed, scared this may sound like an impossible undertaking. Nevertheless, remember a voyage of a 1000 miles starts with a single step. Do what you can today, pray for help and agree to be committed to reading every post and the book to get you on a path away from thinking about suicide and begin embracing hope.  Look forward to post 5 to hear the next decision.

In the meantime, why not watch this You Tube clip of Andy Andrews describing becoming a person of action himself.

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The Club No One Wants to Join (Child Suicide Loss)

May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Karen Kosman:

This story is an excerpt from Too Soon to Say Goodbye: Healing and Hope for Suicide Victims and Survivors, used with permission by New Hope Publishers.

Nancy Palmer on child suicide loss, her adult son’s depression and suicide, and how God helps her cope:

 

Image by Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image by Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  I belong to a club no one wants to join. Its membership is too costly—the death of a child.

I closed my journal after writing these words. My mind reflected once more on that day my life changed forever.

My 30-year-old son, Jason, had been living with us for several months. We’d had an argument. I knew he suffered from depression. Finally, I had confronted him and pleaded. “Jason, no one loves you as much as I do. Please get help!”

“I don’t need help! I’m outta here!” he shouted as he stomped off to his room to pack.

Jason had become skillful at hiding his inner turmoil from friends and family, but I knew all the signs of Jason’s depression. He had struggled on and off most of his life. The intensity of his emotional state this time frightened me. No matter how much my husband, Bill, our sons Bill and Geoffrey, and I cared; we could not control Jason’s choices. He needed professional help, and he had to be the one willing to seek it.

A Christian psychologist had provided me with a list of therapists that Jason could see, but he refused. Jason was separated from his son, and his son’s mother. She didn’t know how to deal with Jason’s depression and had left him. Jason’s 3 -year-old, autistic son certainly needed his daddy. I hoped and prayed that his son would be the reason Jason might change his mind and seek help.

Wandering into Jason’s room after he left, I felt shocked to find his most cherished belongings—items he’d never left behind before. I tried to convince myself that he’d be back, that he’d announce, “Mom, I am ready to seek help.”

The insistent ringing of the doorbell finally broke through my resolve not to answer the door. A chill ran down my spine as I faced a man I did not know. Suddenly, my eyes fell on Jason’s driver’s license attached to the stranger’s clipboard. My heart sank, and I knew even before he asked the question, “Mrs. Palmer, do you know a Jason Palmer?”

“Yes, he’s my son.”

“We have some bad news. May we come in to speak with you?”

Inside my mind agonized. Noooo! Just go away!

With no way of erasing the dreaded news, I invited the man and his female companion inside.

“This morning a woman heard a noise. When she investigated, she found Jason’s body in a park. He shot himself.”

I went into shock and felt strangely detached. I heard a hysterical woman crying, “Not my baby, not my son. Oh, Jason, Why? Why would you leave loved ones? Why would you leave your son?”

Suddenly I realized the hysterical woman was me. Reality hit. Jason would not be coming home.

Today I still don’t have an answer to my question, “Why?” Yet I have found a renewal of hope by volunteering for a ministry on suicide prevention. This gives me a reason to keep going. I work with the knowledge that we cannot stop all suicides, but saving just one life is worth the effort. I speak whenever I can to tell young people about mental illness and that it’s OK to ask for help.

Am I still grieving?

Absolutely! Some days I wonder how I can go on. I miss Jason so much.

Yet God walks with me in my grief. My family and friends work with me in an untied effort to reach out and help others. And although none of us has found an answer to our “Why?”— we see God making a difference.

Have you suffered a similar loss? Find more articles here on Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. You also might be helped by visiting this site: Love Truth: Hope After Suicide.

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How to Comfort a Friend After a Suicide Loss

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By PeggySue Wells:

When someone loses a loved one to suicide, what do I say?

How can I be the hands of Jesus to comfort a friend who has suffered such a terrible loss?

 

Image from zole4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image from zole4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to Comfort a Friend After a Suicide Loss

In times of deep grief, I have found that hope is more important than advice. Job said it this way,

“Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me? A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends,” (Job 6:12 – 14 NIV).

During those dark hours, Jesus calls us not to be experts, but to come alongside and provide enCOURAGEment.

“A friend sent flowers on that first sad Mother’s Day after my child died,” my Sunday school teacher said. “I felt loved and understood.”

Another grieving mother said,

“After the loss of my son, some people felt awkward when they saw me and turned away. I appreciated those who hugged me and said, ‘I’m praying for you.’”

Trusting God when we least understand is faith in action. Gentle comfort is given by those that put their arms around hurting people and say,

“I don’t understand either. But I love you and I am here to go through this with you.”

Romans 8:38-39 (NIV) promises, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

One man said,

“I was comforted by those who walked with me in the church parking lot, who sat with me so I wouldn’t be alone in my regular pew, and who invited me to lunch on an otherwise lonely weekend afternoon.”

Time doesn’t heal the wounds of someone who has had to say good-by to a loved one. Time merely teaches us to live with that oversized, gaping hole in our life and heart. We can walk beside another through the journey of grief.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NIV) says, “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

The first year after the loss of someone special is especially difficult. Holidays are a merciless reminder that life is forever altered. Comfort your grieving friend with flowers, a note, or a memorial gift in their loved one’s name on Valentines Day, Easter, Mother’s or Father’s Day, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Soothe the sorrow of the anniversary date that marks the loss with a phone call to say, “I’m remembering you today.”

Called to mirror Jesus Christ by being His hands to a hurting world, we help others by seeing and empathizing with their pain. God consoles us so we can show compassion to others.

For additional information on coming alongside someone experiencing loss and grief, read What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Say (Bethany House) and An Early Journey Home (Discovery House).

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How Can I Survive? Grabbing a Lifeline

January 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By PeggySue Wells:

At times life becomes so difficult many wonder, How can I survive? But others can offer hope–and you can too.

 

Life preserver image by cbenjasuwan FDP net

Image by cbenjasuwan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Times of transition can send us spinning into depression and thoughts of suicide. There can be more questions than answers. Will I survive this? Will life ever be secure again? Did I make a bad decision?

“Save me, O God:

 for the waters have risen up to my neck.

I sink in muddy depths and have no foothold;

            I am swept into deep water, and the flood carries me away.

            I am wearied with crying out, my throat is sore,

            my eyes grow dim as I wait for God to help me.”

            Psalms 69:1-3 (NEB)

 My friend shared her experience with change:

When my husband was discharged from military service, we found ourselves jobless and homeless. I took our four small children to stay at a friend’s mountain cabin while my husband looked for employment in another state.

Isolated and on the edge of despair, life looked hopeless. I found myself thinking about suicide.

“If one should fall, the other helps him up; but woe to the man by himself with no one to help him up when he falls down.” Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NJB)

Though we weren’t his responsibility anymore, our former military base chaplain tracked me down. He spent time with me on the phone, asking serious questions to keep me focused on continuing to live. He said he would be there for me during the tough days and he was. I’m thankful he cared enough to help me across the miles.

Has there been someone in your life who has been your lifeline during a dark time? Have you been there for someone else when they were thinking about suicide?

“The generous soul will prosper, he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25 (NIV).

Are you wondering today, How can I survive? Absorb these words from Ruth Bell Graham:

Trusting Him when dark doubts assail us

Trusting Him when our strength is small

Trusting Him when to simply trust Him

is the hardest thing of all.

 

Trust Him then through tears or sunshine

All our cares upon Him cast.

Till the storms of life are over

And the trusting days are past.                      

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Is There Hope? The Buck Stops Here (Decision 1)

January 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By Liz Furman:

Part 2 in the Is There Hope? series.

money from morguefile

In the opening post of this series, I promised to share with you the first decision a person can make to start getting their life to a place they want it to be. If you are thinking about suicide, it is critical for your perspective to change, and I believe this Is There Hope? series can help you.

If you remember I encouraged you to get Andy Andrew’s book The Travelers Gift and to start reading it. (You can find that book new or used, or at your public library.)

So, let’s get started. Decision number one for a person who wants their life to be fun to live is: The Buck Stops Here. Check this quote from the president in The Traveler’s Gift who had big decisions to make~and be responsible for.

From this moment forward, I will accept responsibility for my past. I understand that the beginning of wisdom is to accept the responsibility for my own problems and that by accepting responsibility for my past; I free myself to move into a bigger, brighter future of my own choosing.

Never again will I blame my parents, my spouse, my boss, or employees for my present situation. Neither my education nor lack of one, my genetics, or the circumstantial ebb and flow of everyday life will affect my future in a negative way. If I allow myself to blame these uncontrollable forces for my lack of success, I will be forever caught in a web of the past. I will look forward. I will not let my history control my destiny. Page 32 The Traveler’s Gift

He goes on to say that any person has the power to determine what their thoughts will be. We get to choose negative or positive thoughts. He also vows that when faced with an opportunity to make a decision, we will make one.

The end of that president’s quote goes like this:

The buck stops here. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions.

In the future, when I am tempted to ask the question “Why me?” I will immediately counter with the answer: “Why not me?” Challenges are a gift, an opportunity to learn.

Problems are the common thread running through the lives of great men and women.

 In times of adversity, I will not have a problem to deal with; I will have a choice to make. My thoughts will be clear. I will make the right choice. Adversity is preparation for greatness. I will accept the preparation. Why me? Why not me? I will be prepared for something great!

I accept responsibility for my past. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. I am responsible for my success.

Page 34 The Traveler’s Gift

When thinking about suicide, remembering that the future is our choice has helped folks back from the brink many times.

Though especially when we don’t feel capable of pulling it off, remembering that Jesus promised several times in scripture to never leave of forsake us lends the courage we need to press on. In Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV Bible) it says:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”)

I will continue to share thoughts from Andy Andrews’ book,  The Travelers Gift in future posts, so it would be helpful for you to have a copy–be sure to check your library for one. In the video below, Andy shares about dealing with adversity and making choices, and about how learning new principals can change your life.

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Is There Hope? Choosing New Beginnings

January 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

By Liz Cowen Furman:

Many people who feel desperate wonder, Is there hope? They may even consider suicide. The answer is YES, there is hope, and your life matters.

Part 1 in the Is There Hope? series.

DCF 1.0

Every person at some time in their life is bound to go through difficult times. Some feel so desperate they end up thinking about suicide. There are so many things Satan can use to send a person to the brink of losing hope. And a life without hope is the one that ponders suicide.

If you are in that place today, I am here to tell you that the voices you are hearing, the ones telling you suicide would solve your problems, that life is not worth living, that you or your existence does not matter, is a lie from the pit.

From this moment forward, we can decide to tell that mess to get behind us. We are the ones who can choose our future; we can look out on the world and choose for ourselves what we want our futures to be like.

I heard a wise man once say that when people are depressed and without hope, it is because they are spending too much time thinking about how things currently are and too little time thinking about how they want them to be.

This is a new year, a time for new beginnings. Why not make 2012 the last year you let yourself be thinking about suicide; the last year you let yourself be without hope or somewhere you do not want to be emotionally.

I will share with you some choices you can make so that in January 2014 you will view this painful time in your life as just a bad memory. If you will bear with me here and follow the next seven posts, I believe you will find a way out of the pit of despair you might currently reside in.

Anything that could truly help, that is worth doing, is worth doing right. So please join me on a journey that can bring you up from the land of the dead into the wonderful light in the land of the living.

In the beginning of Andy Andrews‘ book, The Travelers Gift, the main character tries to kill himself. He is at his wits’ end. Sees no way out, feels like a failure. He is living in that pit of despair. While he is asleep (or in a coma) from a car wreck he goes on a journey back into history and meets several great people, each with a gift to help him get his life back.

In the next several posts, I am going to share some of the ideas presented to the main character in his time travel. I encourage you to put off your suicidal thoughts and read the book and the upcoming posts, because I believe that if you have this information you may decide yours is a life worth living. You can find Andy Andrew’s book The Travelers Gift, new or used, or at your public library.

For starters, watch the video below to hear Andy talk about how you can choose how you react to bad circumstances, or manage to act when life is not fair. (This is a long video, so if you want to go to just that section, fast forward to the 14 minute–21:56  marks.) At the end of the video Andy talks about the amazing Butterfly effect and how two billion people were saved by the actions of just a few ordinary people. You can click HERE to watch just the excerpt on the Butterfly Effect at our sister site, Finding God Daily, at the bottom of our article about George Washington Carver.

“Everything you do matters”–your life is indeed worth living!

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Helping Students Understand Suicidal Thoughts

December 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

By Karen Kosman:

 When talking to teens at a high school, we discussed suicidal thoughts, but also how unique and special each of those teens are.
teens by Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos net

Image Courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An opportunity opened for me to speak to high school students, in special needs classes, about suicide. I spoke at 4 different campuses. As I entered each class room I was introduced as a speaker and author. I set my books on stands so the students could see the titles. I noticed that they looked apprehensive. Some nervously wiggled in their seats. Silently I prayed, Lord, please open their hearts. Help them to know that I am here because I care.  

I began to share about some of the challenges I’d had in school and later in my adult life. I noticed that they were listening intently.

When I said, “Do you realize that each one of you are special?” I noticed several sat up straighter. I walked over to a student and said to her, “Do you know that no one in the world has the same set of finger prints that you do?”  Then I walked over to a young man with tattoos on his arms and said, “Do you know that no one in the world has the same design in your eyes as you do?”

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalms 139:14

At that point you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. I knew then I could talk about my son whom I’d lost from suicide.

I brought them into the presentation by asking questions: “What would you do if a friend told you they wanted to die?” Several responded to my questions and listened closely to how to get help for depression and suicidal thoughts.  Throughout my entire presentation one student keeping saying, “I need your book, Too Soon to Say Goodbye.”  Before I left that classroom I signed a book and gave him one. The students wrote letters to me. The young man whom I gave a book to wrote:

Today I learned what to do when you are suicidal. I am a Christian and I really feel bad that so many want to die.  At one time, I wanted to commit suicide, but when I gave my life to my Father -God my life got better. I want others to know that their lives can get better, too. I know that I can win those lost souls and teach them that God changes lives. Please, stop and think before committing suicide.

Another student wrote: Today in my 6th period class we had a guest speaker. She’s written a book about suicide. We learned it is okay to ask for help when depressed. Life can improve and the future can be good. You need to live your life. We also learned how important it is to listen to friends that are talking about committing suicide and tell someone that can help them.

I have no way of knowing what has taken place in each student’s life since that day, but their letters continue to touch my heart. Every time I read them I pray for each student. We all have problems to work out, but we also have the hope that those problems have solutions. Each day we live is a gift.

See this video with Kristin Anderson: Suicide Interrupted, about a failed suicide attempt which led to a life change in this young woman.

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I Need Hope Now

December 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 Linda Evans Shepherd:

If you are thinking: I need hope now, there indeed is hope:

 

If you have been on a diet of frustration, despair and pain then you may be thinking, I need hope now.

But how do you find it? Why not try feasting on my five favorite scriptures about hope to see if they’ll make a difference:

1.  “So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord!” Psalm 31:24

2.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

3.  “I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’” Lamentations 3:24

4.  “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

5.  “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Let’s pray these Scriptures back to the Lord as a prayer:

Dear Lord,

I choose to be strong and courageous and to put my hope in you.  For you have plans for me that are for good and not for disaster, to give me a future and a hope.

My hope is in you because you are my inheritance, meaning you have stored up purpose, love and life for me. As the source of hope, you will fill me with joy and peace because I choose to trust in you. Therefore, you will overflow my heart with confident hope through, not my own power, but the power of the Holy Spirit.

You will do this because you love me because it is written, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”  Therefore I choose to claim, to believe to trust that your love is for me.  And that love changes everything.

Thank you!

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

If you want to know more about starting a relationship with God, click HERE.  In the meantime, I encourage you to cling to these scriptures, and to feed your soul with them whenever you feel hungry for hope.

Take a moment to watch what people would say to those who need more hope in their lives.

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