4.20.19 Praise & Prayer Prompt: Why Hopelessness Should Never Be Trusted

PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• Some days are just depressing.
Whether it’s the weather with a dreary, grey overcast sky, or just a day when we’re struggling with emotions…
There are days when things just feel hopeless.
But hopelessness should never be trusted.
It’s a liar.
Let’s take a look at the worst Saturday in the history of the world.
It was the day after Jesus died on the cross.
The events of Saturday aren’t recorded in the Bible; it was the Sabbath Day.
But the disciples were flesh and blood people with real emotions, so we can make some fairly good assumptions.
If you’ve ever lost a loved one, especially when it was unexpected, you know what I’m talking about.
There’s a surreal feeling that makes you feel like you’re moving through mud.
Everything feels like it’s going in slow motion and the weight of the world feels like it’s on your shoulders.
It seems incomprehensible that life will ever feel normal or that laughter will ever visit your heart again.
And on that Saturday, there were 11 of the 12 disciples who were undoubtedly shell-shocked with grief, remorse, guilt, confusion, hurt, anguish, and a host of other emotions.
Jesus, their teacher was dead.
Judas had betrayed Jesus and turned Him over to the authorities before he committed suicide.
Peter had done the unthinkable and denied Christ three times.
The others had scattered and only a few remained for the actual crucifixion (according to the Gospels of Luke and John—women, acquaintances, and the disciple John as told in Luke 23:49 and John 19:26).
The veil at the temple had torn, there had been an earthquake, and dead people had emerged from tombs (Matthew 27:51-53).
It was the day after the worst day in the history of the world.
If ever a day could be defined as hopeless, it was this day.
But…
We know the rest of the story.
And even on our very worst days, it’s the truth that we can still cling to because Sunday was coming.
As the angel told Mary when he told her that she would be the mother of Jesus, despite her virginity, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
And it’s promised in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
For that reason, we know that there is hope, even on the most hopeless days.
Today, as you pray, thank Jesus that His story didn’t end on a Friday.
Thank Him that even on a day that seems hopeless, we can have hope because of what happened next on a Sunday.
Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with this truth!