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christian living on Despair

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  • Quote

    Author
    J. R. R. Tolkein
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Lamentations 3:21-23, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Psalm 27:13-14, Isaiah 40:31
    It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. (Spoken by Galadriel)

  • illustration

    When your Good Christian World Falls Apart

    Author
    Tammy Maltby
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Kings 19:1–18, Job 3:42 , Lamentations 3:17–26, Luke 15:11–32 , 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, Psalm 34:18
    In her memoir, Confessions of a Good Christian Girl, Tammy describes the internal turmoil she experienced trying to be a good, rule-following Christian who had unexpectedly built an entire life arou...

  • Quote

    Author
    Ernst Bloch
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4:13, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 71:14, Hebrews 11:1, Isaiah 40:31
    It is important to learn hoping. Its work does not despair, it fell in love with succeeding rather than with failure. Hoping, located above fearing, is neither passive like the latter nor imprisoned i...

  • illustration

    Love Songs All Address God

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 42:1-2, 1 Samuel 1:9-18, Psalm 63:1, Luke 15:11-32, Lamentations 3:19-24, Romans 8:22-23, Exodus 2:23-25, Hosea 3:1, John 20:11-18
    In 1998, Nick Cave*, an Australian rock/pop artist, was asked by the Vienna Poetry Academy to give a series of talks on the nature of song-writing. A year later he gave a slightly revised version of t...

  • illustration

    Hope Can Be Hard to Come By

    Author
    John Piper
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 18:6, 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Romans 8:28, Psalm 34:17-18, Isaiah 41:10, Lamentations 3:21-23, Philippians 4:13
    But hope is hard to come by. I should know. I remember the time when I was once busy dying. It wasn’t long after I had broken my neck in a diving accident that I spent one particularly hopeless week i...

  • Quote

    Author
    Jennie Allen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 11:1, Romans 15:13, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 5:3-5, Lamentations 3:21-23
    Doubt steals hope. And with no hope, everything that matters doesn’t feel as important anymore.

  • Quote

    Author
    Pearl S. Buck
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:22-23, Romans 15:13, John 6:51, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Psalm 146:5
    To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.

  • Quote

    Author
    Wendell Berry
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 71:5-6, Isaiah 40:29-31, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Lamentations 3:22-23
    Having hope is hard; harder when you get older.

  • Quote

    Author
    Fredrick Langbridge
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Hebrews 11:1, Isaiah 40:31, Romans 5:3-5, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 42:11, Philippians 4:8
    Because of this we have hope: Two men look out through the same bars One sees mud, one sees stars.

  • Quote

    Author
    Charles Wesley
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 86:5, Isaiah 55:7, Lamentations 3:22-23, Ephesians 2:4-5, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Micah 7:18
    Depth of mercy! Can there be Mercy still reserved for me?

  • Quote

    Author
    Lewis B. Smedes
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 10:36, Habakkuk 2:3, Psalm 37:7, James 5:7-8, Lamentations 3:25-26
    Waiting is the hardest work of hope.

  • Quote

    Author
    William Stringfellow
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Luke 23:39-43, Romans 4:18-21, Luke 15:11-32, Lamentations 3:22-24, Romans 8:24-25
    Hope is reliance upon grace in the face of death: the issue is that of receiving life as a gift, not as a reward and not as a punishment; hope is living constantly, patiently, expectantly, resiliently...

  • Quote

    Author
    Emily Dickinson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Habakkuk 2:3, Romans 12:12, James 5:7-8, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 130:5, Lamentations 3:25-26
    To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.

  • Quote

    Author
    Tertullian
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 10:23, Psalm 27:13-14, Lamentations 3:25-26
    Hope is patience with the lamp lit.

  • Quote

    Author
    Hal Lindsay
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 42:11, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 5:3-5, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:22-23
    Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.

  • Quote

    Author
    Dick Ryan
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 4:16, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 147:3, James 4:10
    Healing begins when, in the face of our own darkness, we recognize our helplessness and surrender our need for control… we face what is, and we ask for mercy.

  • illustration

    The Silence of God

    Author
    Shusaku Endo
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 22:1, Psalm 42:3, Habakkuk 1:2, Isaiah 45:15, Job 30:20, Lamentations 3:28-30
    In the deeply moving novel Silence by Shusaku Endo, the protagonist, a young Jesuit priest named Sebastião Rodrigues describes in horror what it is like to watch two of his disciples, Japanese nationa...

  • Quote

    Author
    R. W. Church
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 33:18, Psalm 71:14, Zechariah 9:12
    Hope, never destroyed, however overthrown, never obscured even amid the storm and dust of ruin, is the prominent characteristic of the Old Testament.

  • Quote

    Author
    Emily Dickinson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 39:7, Romans 5:3-5, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 71:14, 1 Peter 1:3, Romans 15:13
    Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.

  • illustration

    Waiting: Leaning into the Pain

    Author
    Ashley Hales
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Exodus 16:2–4, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25–26, Matthew 4:2–4, Romans 8:24–25, Psalm 130:5–6
    With the global coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, life stopped. Overwhelmed by the threat of a disease we couldn’t stop and for which we didn’t have the hospital capacity, everyone moved work and s...

  • illustration

    Hope In God

    Author
    Eugene Peterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:31, Romans 8:24-25, Psalm 27:14, Hebrews 11:1, Lamentations 3:25-26
    Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to w...

  • liturgy

    Almighty God, we have failed to trust

    Author
    Laura B. Murray
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 41:10, Lamentations 3:22-23, Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 8:28
    Almighty God, we have failed to trust you. Overwhelmed by the pains of life, we have taken charge and pushed you aside. O God, be gracious to us. Remind us of your daily mercies and redemptive power t...

  • Quote

    Author
    Stanley Kunitz
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 5:3-4, Lamentations 3:31-32, Psalm 73:26, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 11:28-30, Isaiah 61:3
    How shall my heart be reconciled to its feast of losses?

  • Quote

    Author
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 23:4, Philippians 3:13-14, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 43:2, 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, Psalm 30:5, Romans 5:3-5
    Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.

  • Quote

    Author
    Eugene Peterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 15:13, Psalm 130:5, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4:6-7, Lamentations 3:25-26, Psalm 27:14
    Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to w...

  • liturgy

    While God’s love never fails, our love does fail.

    Author
    Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Corinthians 13:, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:8-12, Romans 5:8, Romans 8:1
    Leader: While God’s love never fails, our love does fail. All too often, our experience of love is confused, distorted, and disappointing. That is due to the sin in the world and the sin in our own ...

  • liturgy

    Almighty God, you have surprised us

    Author
    Scott B. Bullock
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 13:44, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 139:7-10, 1 John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Luke 2:1-20, John 4:7-26, John 21:1-14, Luke 24:13-35, Matthew 17:1-8, Luke 2:25-38, Luke 1:35-38, Hebrews 13:2, Isaiah 43:19
    Almighty God, you have surprised us with your presence in unexpected ways. In the expectations of our routine, we have missed the treasure that you place before us. We come to worship you in community...

  • Quote

    Author
    Barbara Kingsolver
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 8:24-25, Psalm 39:7, Isaiah 40:31, 1 Peter 1:3, Lamentations 3:22-23, Hebrews 10:23
    The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.

  • Quote

    Author
    Annie Johns Flint
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Exodus 16:1-36, 2 Corinthians 11:23-30, Matthew 14:13-21, 1 Kings 17:7-16, Lamentations 3:22-23, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
    When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere that day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, Our Father’s full giving has only begun. His lo...

  • Quote

    Author
    Emil Brunner
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 1:27, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 39:7, Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 40:31
    What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.
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