What to Do When It Feels Hopeless — Part Two

Today I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were

the wrong person for the job, Like, what did you get yourself into

You didn't have the right experience or the right skill set? Well, I

know I have and you probably have too. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Okay, today we're going

to continue with the series The Manifestation of Your Life Mission. Rick is showing

us that no matter how big the thing is that God is calling us to

do, we don't have to run away from it. We can actually run

toward it. This is such a good message, and I hope you'll invite

a friend to listen along with you as we discover how to embrace God's calling

on our lives and how we can live according to the purpose and plan that

He has for us. Let's join Rick as he shares part two of a

message called what to Do When it Feels Hopeless. I want to read your

poem. It's over one hundred years old. That's why I got named sam

Foss. It's called the Prayer of Farmer Brown. The proper way for one

to pray, said Pastor Samuel Keyes, is to humble yourself before the Lord

and get down on your knees. No, I say that the way to

pray, said Pastor David Wise, is the stand up straight with outstretched arms

and eyes turned to the skies. Oh no, no, no, said

Pastor Slow. That posture is too proud. We should all pray with eyes

closed tight and heads contritely bowed. Well, I believe your hands should be

gently clasped in front, with both thumbs pointing towards the ground, said Pastor

Johnny Blunt. But last year I fell into a well head first, said

Farmer Brown. Both of my feet were sticking up and my head was pointing

down. Yet in my distress, I called out the God with the most

honest words I've said. Yes, the best prayers I've ever prayed was standing

on my head. It doesn't matter how you now, I wrote a few

extra verses. I added these. Then Jonah said these all may be true

for each one of you, so use whichever one you wish. But as

for me, my best prayer came in the belly of a fish. It

was dark and wet and cold and scary, but my prayers raced like a

comet. They streaked across the sky to God, and he made that big

fish vomit. So when and how and where you pray are matters of private

fashion. Just be sure that when you pray, you present your needs with

passion. All right, I think I'll stick to preaching, not poetry.

Okay, all right, here's the third thing you do when you are feeling

hopeless. You're gonna need this someday. You better write this down. Identify

the cause of my hopelessness. Identify the cause of my hopeless. Hopelessness is

a vague feeling, and you can't deal with a vague feeling. You can't

work with a problem. You can't solve a problem. You can't even pray

about a problem until you identify the problem. You got to identify it.

You got to identify the cause of my hope. You can't counteract the feeling

unless you name it. Have you ever had a general vague feeling of uneasiness

and you're feeling down, you're feeling hopeless, and you go, I don't

know why I feel this way. I don't know why. Well, you

can't work on it until you name it. When you name the feeling,

that in itself helps you get a handle on it. Anything you can't name

is already out of control in your life. So if you got this vague

feeling of depression, or vague feeling of down or discouragement, or vague feeling

of hopelessness, you need to stop and go what's really going on here?

What's behind this? You need to pinpoint the source. And this is what

Jonah did you know? Years ago, I did a study of what causes

people to lose hope and I discovered I read extensively, literally everything I could

possibly read on hopelessness, and I discovered that they're about ten common causes of

hopelessness. Hopelessness isn't the problem. The problem is what's causing the hopelessness in

your life. And as interesting as I read Jonah's vivid description of what's going

through his mind is he's sinking down and he's praying this prayer and he's sinking

below the waves and he's swallowed by that fish. I discovered he illustrates a

bunch of those common causes of opuses. So for your benefit, I just

want to point them out. I want to read through part of Jonah's prayer

and I want us to pick out causes of hopelessness. Because then you'll know,

Oh, this is what's really making me feel bad. It's not this

vague sense of hopelessness. You can't work on it until you name it,

all right, So let me read verse three to six in Jonah Chapter two.

Jonah, this is his prayer. You God cast me into the deep

water, and I sank to the bottom of the sea. Everything was churning

around me, and I was engulfed by powerful waves that overwhelmed me. Then

I thought, I've been banished from God's presence and I'll never get to see

your holy temple again. I was scared to death, afraid I was drowning,

with water choking me and the seaweed wrapped all around my head. This

is pretty graphic. I kept sinking down to the ocean floor, to the

mountains that rise off the ocean floor, and I felt locked in a prison

forever. Now, in that passage, he gives us eight common causes of

hopelessness. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on these,

but I want you to check any one of these that you may be

feeling right now, because this could be a precursor to depression or hopelessness in

your life. Okay, So here are eight feelings that cause us to feel

hopeless, and Jonah mentions them all. Number one first feeling I'm in over

my head. Feeling that I'm in over my head. You know when you

feel like I don't have My situation exceeds my knowledge, My situation needs my

ability, the situation exceeds my finances. I'm in over my head. I've

been thrown into the deep end. Jonah says, you cast me into the

deep water. He's saying, I'm way out of my depth. I'm into

deep. I'm in deep trouble. When do you feel like you're in over

your head? That's going to cause you to feel hopeless. Number two feeling

I've hit bottom can cause hopelessess. Feeling I've hit bottom. I sank to

the bottom of the sea. He said there was no way I could go

any lower. I was at an all time low. And that when you

feel you can't go any lower, when you feel I have hit rock bottom

or the bottom fell out and I've gone even lower, I'm as low as

you can go. I've hit bottom. That's going to cause hopelessness. Third

feeling job says, feeling out of control and powerless, feeling out of control

and powerless. He says in the next phrase, everything was churning circle that

churning around me. You ever felt like that everything was churning around you.

You feel out of control, and you feel powerless to change anything. You're

you're drifting without direction, motion without meaning. You've got activity without clarity,

You've got pressure without purpose. You're just drifting around. Everything's churning around me.

I'm drifting around. I'm swept along by outside forces. You're all over

the map. That's feeling out of control and powerless. Number four. Fourth

thing feeling overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed can cause you to be hopeless. I was

engulfed, Jonah says, by powerful waves that overwhelmed me. I'm in golf.

That means I'm helpless to change it. I'm engulfed. The powerful is

so powerful, I'm overwhelmed by it. Number five feeling rejected or lonely.

Either of these could cause you to feel hopeless. Feeling rejected or feeling that's

the real cause of the hopelessness, not the hopelessness. He says. Then

I thought I've been banished from God's presence. A loneeness can cause hopelessness,

Jonah saying, I feel like God's a million miles away. I feel rejected,

I feel on my own. I feel alone. That can cause hopelessness

in your life. Number six feeling remorse and regret. You can use this

checklist with friends when you're helping them trying to figure out what's what's making them

feel so bad. Feeling remorse or regret, Jonah says, and I'll never

get to see your holy temple again. I'll never He's got He's filled with

remorse, he's filled with regret. He knows the problem is his own fault.

He was running from God. You can run from God, but then

you can't run anymore because you can run, but you can't hide. Down

here on the screens. On forty two, verse four, David says,

my heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be. That's a

cause for hopelessness. My heart is breaking for remembering how it used to be.

I feel remorse, I feel regret, I may feel I may feel

guilt because it was so good, but I ran from God. I ran

from God, and my heart's breaking as I remember how it used to be.

Number seven big cause of hopelessness feeling crushing fear. Feeling crushing fear,

Jonah says, I was scared to death. I was afraid. I was

afraid. I was drowning with water choking me and seaweed wrapped all around my

head. Circle that word choking. Did you know that the word were The

English word worry comes from the old English word worgan. You know what worgan

means to choke, to strangle. Worry has a strangling, choking feeling on

your life. It can choke the life of anxiety. Worry, fear can

choke the life out of it. They can choke the hope out of you.

Feeling crushing fear. And the eighth thing he says is I was feeling

trapped. That's feeling trapped. I felt locked in a prison forever. Other

translations, I felt behind bars and somebody had thrown away the key. Now,

as we go through that list, are you feeling any of these right

now? I meant over my head of hit bottom, feel out of control,

feel powerless, feel overwhelmed, feel lonely, I feel rejected, I

feel remorse or regret, feel crushing fear, feel trapped. Only when you

name what you're feeling, Only when you identify what you're feeling. Can you

actually pray about it specifically? But once you know what's the cause of your

hopossess, then you can go to the next step, number four. Here's

number four. Ask God for specific help. Now you sink God, I'm

feeling out of control. God, I'm feeling regret. I'm feeling remorse.

God, I'm feeling fear. God, I'm feeling trapped. God, I'm

feeling any of these things we just listed. You talk to God specifically about

those things. Be specific Jonah two, verse two. The second party says,

from the deep, from deep in the world of the dead, I

ask for help, and you listen to my cry. Now that deep in

the world could indicate that maybe he eventually died in that fish and was resurrected.

We don't know. That's just a guess. Psalm fifty, verse fifteen.

God says, call to me in your times of trouble, and I

will save you and you will honor me. So once I know what's the

source, I've named what I'm really feeling. I does's have this vague feeling

of feeling bad. I know what's causing I know the thorn. Then I

begin to pray specifically. Now here's the key to asking for help. I

want you to write this down, pray the word of God. Write this

down, pray the word of God. What do I mean by that?

I mean take scripture and say them back to God. This is what Jonah

did to get his miracle. Jonah clearly is well versed in the Bible,

because in this very short prayer he prays eight different scriptures. Everything he said

is a quote from Psalms. He's eight times he quotes Psalms. He's just

quoting what other people have complained about in the Bible. Now, it's a

whole lot better to pray the Bible back to God. God loves to hear

his words prayed back to him. He said, well, what should I

pray? Write these down? Three things you should pray. Pray the complaints

to God. Pray the complaints of the Bible to God. Everything Jonah just

prayed is actually in the book of Psalms. He's just saying I felt this

way, I felt this way. He's quoting David. You wouldn't know that

unless you knew scripture. But you pray the complaints to God. So when

you read one of those lamentation verses or chapters or psalms. You can go

God, this is my prayer, and you pray to God. God,

I am angry with you right now. You pray the complaints to God.

Laments as I said, they're in job, They're in psalms, they're in

lamentations, the Book of Lamitations. Number two. Pray the truth about God.

That's the second thing. Pray the complaints of God. Pray the truth

of God about God. God. You're a good God. God. You're

a gracious God. God. You're a just God. God, You're a

fair God. You pray what the Bible says about God. Back to God.

Okay, God, here's my complaints. They're in the Bible. Here's

what the Bible says about you. That's in the Bible. And then the

third thing, you pray the promises of God. God, you promised to

do this. Now keep your word. I can't tell you how many times

in prayers I've said, God, I need you to keep your word.

God, I need you to do what you've promised to do. You have

promised right here, and I'll say the promise if I've got it, memorize

you have promised to do this. God. I need you to keep your

word, pray the complaints of the Bible, pray the truth of the Bible,

and pray the promises of the Bible. Number five. Fifth thing you

do. Focus on the goodness of God to me. When everything looks dark,

when everything I can't see ahead, there's a fog, it's shrouded.

I can't see the future. It's pitch black, there's no light at the

end of the tunnel. I focus on the goodness of God to me.

And what I'm gonna have to do is I'm gonna have to mentally shift my

mind. When I'm hopeless. I'm going to have to choose to stop thinking

about the things that are making me feel hopeless. And I'm gonna have to

choose to change the channel of my mind and start thinking about the things that

I can be. I know for sure they're gonna lift my spirit. The

goodness of God, how he's been good to me in the past, how

He's promised to be good to me in the future. And on an app

in verse seven, Jonah says this, when I had lost all hope,

I turn my thoughts once more to the Lord. Friends, that's the answer

to hopeless us right there, when I had lost all hope. I turned

my thoughts once more to the Lord. I turned back to the goodness of

God and the greatness of God, and the power of God, and the

love of God, and the fairness and the justice of God, and the

kindness of God. I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord, and

in my earnest prayer and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy

temple. He's talking about heaven. Now, you know, the Bible,

in the Old Testmen's written in Hebrew. But the Greek word for turning your

thoughts is the word metanoia. You know what that word is. It's the

word for repent. Repentance simply means to turn your thoughts. That's all it

means. Repentance does not mean stop doing bad stuff. Repentance means change your

mind, turn your thoughts, think about it in a different way. Look

at life from God's viewpoint instead of my own viewpoint. Look at the goodness

of God, not the problems in my life. I turn my thoughts metanoia.

I repent. When you feel hopeless, you need to change the channel

of your mind. You need to change your focus. You look at your

problems. You'll be distressed. You look within, you'll be depressed. You

look at Christ, you'll be at rest. All depends on what you're looking

at. You look at the world, you'll be distressed. Look around,

you'll be distressed. You look within, you'll be depressed. You look at

Christ, you'll be at rest. All depends on what you're focused on.

You change the channel. When I had lost all hope, I turn my

thoughts once more to the Lord. What a beautiful verse. You need to

memorize that verse. You need to take it home, write it on a

card, and you need to doe Jonah two seven by heart. Everybody who's

listening to the Sign of My Voice should memorize that verse because one day you're

going to be driving a car and you're in an accident and you think this

is the end, and you'll say, and when I had lost all hope,

I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord, And that verse will

be there for you. It can't help you if you don't hide it in

your heart. The Bible has all of the things to get rid of your

hopelessness, you just don't know where they are. And if you've poured over

this verse like Jonah did, he knew the psalms so well that when he's

drowning, he can quote eight different psalms from memory. And he's quoting the

goodness of God, and he's quoting the complaints of David, and he's quoting

the promises that are going to save him. Can you do that? That's

God's way of getting out of hopelessness. You need to start thinking about God's

word instead of thinking about your worries. If you're thinking about your worries,

it's just going to be swirling down, down, down down. If you're

thinking about God's word, it's going to be going up up up, Look

up when you hit bottom. Now, one of the psalms that Jonah remembers

and quotes is actually Psalm twenty seven. Look up here on the screen.

Jonah says, I would have despaired, I guess so, unless I had

believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord, I would have been

in despair. Unless I had believed, I'm going to focus on the goodness

of God. God's goodness to me. When I lost all hope, I

turned my thoughts once more to God. God, You're a good God.

This is not a good situation, and it's my fault. I recognize it.

It's my fault. I'm here because I was running from you. It's

my sin that caused this pain, this problem. I know it. But

You're still a good God even when I'm not good, and I will turn

my thoughts to the Lord. I would have the spirit unless i'd believe that

I would see the goodness of the Lord. You know this verse that I

just read you, You just know it. In the New International Version,

we sing it all the time. Look out up here on the screen,

here's the same word. The Lord is my Light and salvation. Whom shall

I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life? Of whom shall

I be afraid? I will remain This is verse thirteen. I will remain

confident to this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land

of the living. He was anywhere but the land of the living when he's

praying that prayer. I remember quoting that verse standing out in front of my

son's home when my youngest son, Matthew, lost his battle with mental illness

and took his life. It was the worst day of my life, and

I remember saying, the Lord is my Light and salvation. Who shall I

fear? Who shall I be afraid? I will remain confident of this.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living.

He will not return to me, but I will return to him one day.

Regardless of what you're going through, God's purpose, God's grace, God's

mission for your life is greater than the problem you were going through right now.

I will remain confident of this. When I had lost all hope,

I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord. As I said earlier,

you need to memorize that verse. Even when the problem is your fault.

It was Jonah's fault. He got himself into that mess. That didn't stop

the grace of common You know, people are being transformed by these messages.

In fact, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners. Today,

I want to share a testimony from Ella, who listens to Daily Hope

in Canada, and she started listening to our broadcast during COVID nineteen pandemic.

She wrote, Pastor Rick, like so many, I found every area of

my life flipped upside down when the pandemic hit in twenty twenty. I graduated

from the university in April that year and I was lost and desperate for guidance.

Yet as stubborn as I was, I searched for answers everywhere else except

in God's Word. But out of desperation, I read the purpose Driven Life

and I started listening to Daily Hope. Daily Hope was one of the resources

that became monumental in my journey to giving my life to Christ a year after

I started listening. And so I want to thank you, and I want

to thank everyone at Daily Hope for all the work that you do. It

must seem so abstract when people you reach are all over the world, but

I know I'm not alone. And saying that Daily Hope has helped me find

comfort and God when I needed it most. Wow, Ella, thank you

so much. Thank you for writing. Thank you for telling me that you've

accepted Christ. You know, I know so many people who are just like

you. They're lost, they're looking for answers, and they keep looking everywhere

but in the right place, God's word for the truth. But praise God,

you found the word of God. You believed his word, and you

believe that Jesus is the truth. So it's a blessing, it's a blessing

to know that God is using this broadcast to help bring you and other people

to Him on a daily basis. Now, you mentioned that it must be

unusual to reach people around the world even though I'm not able to meet him

face to face, and I'd like to say this, I wish I could

meet everybody face to face. I wish I could take every one of you

out to a corner restaurant, sit down and have a cup of coffee and

just let me hear your life story. I would nothing would make me feel

happier than doing that. But that's why I'm blessed to receive letters. Please

write me, Please tell me your story. I want to know how God

is changing your life, how God is using his word through Daily Hope to

make a difference in you. So let me know what God's doing in your

life. Let me know how He's using Daily Hope to help you in your

Christian walk, and that way we can pray intelligently for you. If you'd

like to bless Pastor Rick by letting him know how much this broadcast has helped

you, please send him an email at Rick at pastorick dot com. That's

Rick at pastor dot com. We hope you'll join us next time when we

look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor

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