Hope in God
Are you suffering from a very deep pain? Talk to one of our mentors.
We will always experience suffering during our lives here on our fallen Earth. When we experience pain, especially the death of a loved one, our natural response is to question, to ask why and perhaps even to doubt God. Because it hurts.
Some people will respond to evil they see by denying that evil exists. But what is perhaps easy to say is quite difficult to live, or as C S Lewis put it: “Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later.” There is a name for the person who denies good and evil: a sociopath. Clearly the proper response to evil is not denial.
Other people will respond to evil by removing God from the equation. But removing God does not make evil less evil, nor pain less painful. In fact, removing God also removes ultimate hope. Without God, our world seems permanently and irredeemably evil. Without God, there is no ultimate relief from pain, only pain.
With God we cry out to a loving Father who remains with us and comforts us as we hurt and Himself came to Earth as a human being to suffer and die for us. But without God we cry out into the empty void of nothingness that neither hears our cry nor cares for our pain. Removing God results in no gain and much loss.
When we have God in our lives and hearts, we have hope during difficult times and comfort in the midst of tragedy. We have hope grounded in the fact of God’s mighty power, His limitless mercy, and everlasting love. No matter what happens, God loves us because God is love. And nothing can separate us from Him.
“For 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” (Romans 8:38-39).
Thank you Lord, for Your love and faithfulness to me. Amen.
Questions: How do you respond to evil?
About this Author Darren Hewer
Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Defeating Discouragement, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog
Tags: C S Lewis, comforts, death, denial, evil, God, hope, loss, mercy, pain, painful, Right and Wrong, sociopath, suffer, suffering, tragedy
6 Responses to “Hope in God”
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Darrin, thank you for your devotional and kind words.
I know right and I know wrong but it is the Holy Spirit that guides me daily and I never waiver too far from the Lord’s Word. I know I am weak and when evil is in my path, I know I can depend on God anytime, anywhere to guide me. All I have to do is pray.
It occurs to me that those of us who are in Christ have a duty to help anyone who is in trouble spiritually. I imagine that there are many women who read this devotional everyday looking for comfort from what is shared here. There are also many devotionals that are written to encourage us…one comes to mind when we looked at the character of God a while back. I’ve been reading these devotions for over a year now and I must say that I really find them quite balanced. As much as I would like to think that I should be uplifted everyday here, the reality is I should be looking to the words written here to reflect on how I should be surrending to God and his word. Tiffany, dear one, please don’t give up and move on. Surely there must be some way that you could encourage another sister by sharing your life and God’s goodness to you. Praying that you will change your mind and stay with us…..Love, Donna
You are right, Linda, that our Lord uses our pain, our afflictions, our trials to refine us and then bless others by our testimony of His faithfulness and care during such difficulties! 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “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 have received from God.” Linda, you have been such an encouragement to others on this blogsite, comforting those who are in distress with great compassion! Tiffany, praise God for His goodness and mercies to you, but do not forget your sisters who still wait upon Him for delivery from physical/emotional bondage and/or victory over spiritual drought. Jesus was very tender-hearted to the hurting, the discouraged, and the outcast, and He ministered to them with loving sensitivity to their brokenness and spiritual defeat. We, too, by His Spirit in us, are called to be compassionate to those among us who need encouragement and comfort.
Precious Lord, we praise You for this online ministry and for the loving care that Your daughters have shown to one another through their sharing and comforting! Thank You for teaching us how to go beyond sympathy, and to reach out with empathy to those who struggle on their faithwalk! Grant us more grace, Lord, to be encouragers along this journey, for times are difficult and the enemy seeks to destroy. Refresh us, Lord, when we grow weary, for it is by Your power that we serve the body of Christ, and it is for Your glory alone! In Jesus’ precious, holy Name, Amen!
Thank you both for your comments. Tiffany, I’m sorry that you haven’t been finding the devotionals helpful. It’s impossible to please everyone all the time, but I hope you will stick with us, as Linda said, to encourage others in their lives even if yours is currently going well. (Or in preparation for when it’s not!)
Sorry by the way about sending this particular devo twice this week, that was an oversight on our part. And the comment notification is currently broken, the tech guys are working to repair it as soon as possible, so you won’t receive notification of new comments until that happens. Thank you for your patience as we fix it!
I’d just like to say Tiffany I am sorry you feel that way. Maybe your life or my life isn’t suicidal right now or our marriage falling apart but wake up girl there sure are a lot of people out there who are. I think it is a honour if we can share with one another and encourage one another in some small way on this blog with so many hurting people out there. Our Christian Life is not what we can get out of it but what can we put into it and boy if my sharing the fact that I lost my first husband at the age of 20, my teenage daughter at the age of 15 1/2 who I know is with the Lord but I still miss her dearly and the fact that I live daily with chronic pain & now under control bipolar depression can help someone, anyone in some small way then Lord Please Use Me, Please Lord Don’t Refuse Me, Surely There’s A Work That I Can Do! and if it is on this Devotional site as it is for many, many others Praise The Lord For The Work That This Site Is Doing! Keep Up The Good Work! Hugs Linda!!!
PS: one quick question, how come I don’t get peoples responses sent to email box anymore? Thanks Linda
Farewell.
I am unsubscribing to the Women’s Daily Devotional. Although I enjoy the daily scripture citations, the negative, doom and gloom of the daily devotional’s introductions and anecdotes is neither uplifting nor welcoming. The devotional’s title “Devotional for Women” is misleading because I’ve found almost every devotional to be geared for the deeply depressed, down trodden and hopeless, which is not what I am as a Christian woman. I was hoping that your devotional would be an encouraging way to begin my day with praise and joy for my Creator. May I kindly suggest and remind the creator’s of this online devotional that Christian Women are also happy and joyful in our daily lives and walks with God, rather than suicidal thinking women in “deep pain”, as today’s title indicates. Certainly we all have experienced deep pain in one way or another, but I was hoping that this daily devotional would go beyond that and encourage us to see who we are in Christ and praise Him for the blessings of everyday life. As a devotional, I’m sad to say that the introduction to most of your stories is extremely depressing and not the way in which I look forward to starting my day.
All the best,
Tiffany