Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will abound in hope and overflow with confidence in His promises.

We are faced with so many obstacles, hardships, chaos, and painful situations it can be really hard to maintain our hope. It can feel like we are in hopeless situations and that things are never really going to change, but that is a lie of the enemy. God is full of hope, joy, and peace.

How to Restore Hope

Faith: We must guard and build our faith. That is the first step toward rebuilding our hope. Hebrew 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].” There are a few ways to stir up our faith. One, look back at all God has brought you through, get into the Word and read about How He moved on behalf of His people, and listen to the testimonies of others, but do not get bitter when you see what God is doing for others. Keep in mind and focus on the fact that what He does for them He will do for you! His blessings are for all His children. He sees you and He loves you!

Tear Down All Idols: We must totally destroy them, crush them, and burn them to the ground. We cannot just try to hide them in a closet. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives and they must all go. He must be on the throne of our lives and nothing else. Idols can come in the form of money, status, social media, spouse, children, jobs, material objects, ministry, people, and false religions.

Repent of Mistrust: We must deal with any feelings of rejection, bitterness, fear, lies, and false judgments about God. We should have a very open and honest conversation with Him and lay out all our feelings before Him. It is easy to allow situations to create a false view of God. It is time to tear down those lies and stand firmly on who we know Him to be as shown to us in His Word.

Worship and Praise: We should offer thanksgiving even when we do not feel like it, especially then. There is always something to be grateful for and it is those things we should focus on.

Speak Scripture Over Your Life: We must speak faith and life over our lives and there is no better place to find that than the Word of God. We should be speaking the truth of what God says about us over our lives daily. Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Get Your Thought Life Under Submission: Philippians 4:8 ^“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything, worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Our thoughts and words must line up with this scripture. If they do not we must pull them down.

Pulling Down Lofty Thoughts: 2 Corinthians 10:5 ^“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”

Fast: Fasting makes the flesh submit, draws us closer to the Lord, and shifts our focus away from our situation and puts it back where it belongs, on God.

Submission: We must totally submit to His will, His Plan, His purpose, and His timing. We must get to the place of fully laying our lives down at His feet.

Prayer: We cannot neglect our time with Him. Even if we do not feel Him or hear Him we must continue to press into Him and spend time at His feet.

Stay Persistent: No matter what happens we cannot give up or give in to the situations we are facing. We cannot base our lives on feelings. We must base our lives on the truth found in His Word. Feelings change and feelings lie, but His Word is the one and only unchanging truth.

Lessons: Ask yourself and God if there is a lesson in this midst of the situation. Is He trying to teach you something or grow you in a specific area?

Rest in His Love: He loves you! He is not punishing you. He is drawing you to Him. The enemy drives you away, but God draws you near. He is close to the broken hearted: Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Seek to hear from God: The words He speaks to you will be your lifeline.

I hope this has been helpful!

Blessings,

Nichole Henson, Fullness of Joy Ministry

Email: fullnessofjoyministry@gmail.com

Facebook Ministry Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/351690279198647

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