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Hope in the Midst of Pain

This weekend, a loved one’s niece and nephew (both teens) lost their father to a massive heart attack. 


During the month of September, other fathers and mothers (many fathers and mothers) were incarcerated, separating them from their children for indefinite periods of time, changing those families’ lives forever, too.

During the past week, people received terminal medical diagnoses, dealt with crushing financial hardships and struggled to pay – or couldn’t pay – for the bare necessities of life, senior adults have been forced to leave their homes because they could no longer afford mortgage or rent, and thousands have lost everything to a hurricane named Ian.


So much pain. So much loss. So much heartache. So much uncertainty. All in such a short period of time.


Yet the harder life gets, the more my faith strengthens and the more my hope grows. The harder life gets, the more I want to give people the same Hope that I cling to hourly.


My Hope is Jesus Christ, and that Hope is recorded in the Holy Bible. When life gets hard, and harder still, I pour through my Bible looking for God’s words to comfort me, sustain me, encourage me, inspire me, challenge me, hold me, guide me. I cling to His promises and long for His eternity.


  • My hope is from Him. (Psalm 62:5)


  • Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)


  • Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)


  • The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)


  • Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)


  • For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18)


  • Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)


  • Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)


  • He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)


  • He is our Hope today, in the midst of our trials, and He is our Hope for tomorrow, when there will no longer be any more pain and suffering. That day when we can spend forever with Him.


I long for that day, don’t you?







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