Release Fear to Hope

Susan Stewart is a woman of the Word, and a practical, realistic optimist. In this Hope UPGRADE, she points us to many scriptures that will help us release our fears and move to a solid position of hope in the Lord.

Susan says, “An Inuit saying is, ‘We don’t believe. We only fear.’ Sadly, I think this is what our society has come to.”

I (Dawn) believe there are many ways to conquer fear, but hope in God is certainly one of them. (Depending on the Bible translation, the word "hope" appears anywhere from 133 times to 244 times!) I love how Susan zeroes in on this powerful truth.

Susan continues . . .

I don’t read or listen to “news” much anymore. Much of “breaking news" is dread rather than information: deadly storm coming, inflation going to rise, more people hospitalized. I even saw one headline stating, “Life Gets Hard.”

So negative . . . so fearful . . . so hopeless.

Add to this the stress of our modern life: jobs, kids’ activities, commutes, etc. The fearful news only adds to our everyday tension.

Scientists say fear is natural and can be healthy. As one psychologist said, it’s fear that causes us to jump off a railroad track when a train is coming. Fear can be important to our survival.

But the constant state of fear with associated anxiety disrupts our lives and, in extreme cases, our health. Sadly, even Christians succumb to the fear.

God doesn’t abandon us to fear and stress. Instead, he’s provided about 365 Bible verses about fear—one for each day of the year.

Of those 365, more than 100 verses tell us to “fear not.”

Recognize the Bad Kind of Fear

It’s usually not hard to recognize the bad kind of fear, and for those cases, God’s Word tells us to NOT fear—to choose to stand against it.

• "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV).
• "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV).
• ". . . In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?" (Psalm 56:4 NKJV).
• "So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:6 ESV).

When I read these verses, I learn God doesn’t give me fear. Because he is my God, he will strengthen and help me. I have no reason to be afraid. He is holding me.

When I trust God, what can others do to me? After all, who’s in charge here? God is.

Practice Good, Wisdom-based Fear.

God also gives us specifics about good fear. As Job says, “. . . Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. . .” (28:28). Again, we have a choice.

• ". . . it will be well with those who fear God. . ." (Ecclesiastes 8:12 NKJV)"
• ". . . Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV).
• ". . . Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart" (1 Samuel 12:24 ESV).
• "You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield" (Psalm 115:11 ESV).
• "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?. . ." (Psalm 27:1).

I hear the loving Father say,

“Fear only me, that’s your duty. I’m your help, shield, light and salvation. Who should you be afraid of? Because you fear me and only me it will be well with you.”

Rejoice in Hope, the Source of Godly Fearlessness

God offers relief from fear through HO. He’s given us more than 100 verse about hope.

• ". . . your faith and hope are in God" (I Peter 1:21 ESV).
• "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23 ESV).
• ". . . Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation. . . " (Psalm 42:5, 11 and again in Psalm 43:5 ESV).
• ". . . we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2 ESV).

God tells me in these few verse our hope is in Him. We can count on that hope because He promised, and He is faithful to keep those promises.

We have reason to praise God because of the hope we have from Him.

Job uses the word hope at least 25 times. If Job can have that much hope, why can’t we?

One of my favorite old hymns says, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

No matter how bleak the world may seem, or news announcements may make it appear, we Christians have nothing to fear.

We have the hope of Jesus in all things.

We can say with the angels, “. . . Fear God and give him glory” (Revelation 14:7 ESV).

What do you fear? How do you fight your fear? Where do you go for hope in a dreary world?

Susan K. Stewart, Managing Editor with Elk Lake Publishing, teaches, writes, and edits non-fiction.  Susan’s passion is to inspire readers with practical, real-world solutions. Her latest book, Donkey Devos: Listening When God Speaks, is a devotional based on life with her donkeys. You can learn more at her website www.susankstewart.com.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Open Clipart / Vectors and Dorothe, Dark Moon Art, both at Pixabay.

Hope When It Hurts

I've read a lot of articles about hope lately, and many of them were "fluff," but Shonda Savage Whitworth's article is deep truth, because it comes from a deep rooting in the Word of God. In this Biblical Thinking UPGRADE, she encourages us to seek true hope when we hurt.

"My dreams for my family’s future shattered when my oldest son was sentenced to prison," Shonda says.

"His conviction demolished the good mother image I erected in my mind. With this image decimated, my emotions spiraled into a dark abyss."

I (Dawn) know several families with incarcerated children, and they all deal with tough issues, some struggling everyday with hope.

Shonda continues . . .

After my son began his life in state prison, my life of being held captive by guilt, shame, and condemnation started. Despair enveloped me like a heavy fog keeping the light from shining in my life.

We read in Proverbs:

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12, NLT).

The anguish gave way to hopelessness, and I was diagnosed “situational adjustment disorder,” which is a classification of anxiety and depression.

My personal life stalled while the world around me moved forward.

While the life I had and the future I expected dissipated, I knew I could not remain stuck in the sorrow. My family needed me to be present in their lives.

This realization allowed a ray of sunshine to peek through the fog of despair and I encouraged myself in the Lord, just as David did when he was greatly distressed. 

Here are three ways I found hope when it hurt.

1. Praising God

In my pain, I played worship music and sang along to praise the Lord. Many times, the words to the worship songs triggered tears, so I just cried out, “No matter what, You are God.”

Dr. John G. Mitchell wrote, “To give thanks when you don’t feel like it is not hypocrisy; it’s obedience.”

Hebrews 13:15 tells us, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (NKJV).

There are times when giving thanks out of obedience is a sacrifice, but the reward is worth it.

Through worship, my focus turned to the Lord and off of my circumstances. As a result, new hope poured into my spirit.

2. Meditating on the Word

A colleague told me, “Shonda, be sure you put your hope in God because man will fail you.” In hindsight, I realized that I put my hope in the attorney and the justice system instead of God.

To pull myself out of the darkness, I read the Bible daily and Scriptures about hope popped up. As I meditated on the word, I learned hope in God is our expectation in what He can do, not what I can do or what any other person does.

Then I came across Zechariah 9:12:

“Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (NIV).

At that moment,

I chose to be a prisoner of hope instead of a prisoner of despair.

As a prisoner of hope, I released my expectations of man and the system and placed my confidence in the Lord.

3. Praying

Before the tragic events unfolded that led to my son’s imprisonment, my prayer was “Lord, I ask You to hedge him in so he cannot follow his own path” (based on Hosea 2:6).

I believed my prodigal son would find his way home. Instead, he went to prison.

During the months leading up to the trial, I prayed for my son’s freedom. After his conviction, my hope dissolved and my desire to pray evaporated.

As I meditated on Scriptures, Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) And Jesus prayed, “nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

My prayers were the opposite, so I began to pray like Jesus taught and modeled. As a result, my perspective changed.

I now see how prison saved my son’s life—both in the eternal and in the natural.

In my hurt, I found hope as I offered up the sacrifice of praise, meditated on the Word of God daily, and prayed God’s will.

Through these daily disciplines,

• the fog of despair lifted,
• my good mother image has been replaced with knowing who I am in Christ,
• and my life is moving forward filled with joy and peace as I know God, my source of hope.

If you’ve lost hope due to hurtful circumstances in your life, my prayer for you is from Romans 15:13:

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

Are you struggling with hope today? Which of these three ways to find hope when you hurt is missing or lacking in your life? How can you change that today?

Shonda Savage Whitworth is the founder and president of Fortress of Hope Ministries, Inc., giving hope to those with incarcerated family members. She is a speaker and author who connects with her audiences through her transparent testimony of personal tribulations and triumphs in Christ. Her book, Appeal to the Courts of Heaven: Prayers for Prisoners and Prison Families, is scheduled to release in the fall of 2019. You can read more about Shonda’s unexpected prison family journey on her blog

Graphic adapted, courtesy ofLechenie Narkomanii at Pixabay.

Encourage Others With Hope

In this Spiritual Life UPGRADE, Dawn Wilson invites readers to encourage their hearts with hope in God but not to stop there!

Confusion. Chaos. Deep wounds and pain. Disappointments. Betrayal. Again and again we face overwhelming circumstances.

And if it were not for the Lord, we would be overcome.

My sister Pam struggles with many trials, but she shines for Jesus as He continues to do a mighty work of grace in her life.

After a recent fresh struggle she texted me, “In darkness is hope.”

Her words struck me hard and made me cry, because I know how deep darkness has entered her life since childhood. But I’ve also seen the light of hope in God and His Word bring her peace, wisdom and joy.

Not too long ago, we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. The Reverend said in his final sermon in 1968, “only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” Our greatest hope can come alive when we need it—and when we need the Lord—the most.

Words by the writer of Hebrews and the Old Testament Psalmist have become two resources of hope for me in recent days.

In Hebrews, we read, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and steadfast” (6:19a). Believers were encouraged to “take hold of the hope set before us” so they could be “strongly encouraged” (6:18b).

God’s kind of hope “does not disappoint us,” the Apostle Paul said, because “God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).

The need for hope goes back to the Garden of Eden, when the Lord gave the first two human sinners hope for salvation (what is commonly called the Protevangelium in Genesis 3:15). God's promise gave them great hope, even in the midst of their punishment for sin.

Throughout the Old Testament we sense the deep longing for the Messiah, the Promised One, to come. It was a cry of hope in God, and we hear that heart cry repeatedly in the psalms (Read Psalm 2; 22, 45; 72; and 110).

The cry for hope is loud in the psalms. Listen to the Psalmist’s prayer of lament and allow your heart to feel the pain.

“My heart is in anguish within me … fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me” (Psalm 55:4-5)

But listen too to his honest plea for help and his assurance of God’s presence and help in the midst of his struggles.

“O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth.… I cry to you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge….” (Psalms 54:2 and 142:5).

The Psalmist confidently proclaimed God as the source of his hope; and we need to point our hearts toward God and His Word too.

We need go beyond our own need for hope to encourage other people to place their hope in the Lord.

It’s wise to encourage hope because:

1. Hope brings spiritual and emotional rest.

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him” (Psalm 62:5).

2. Hope anticipates God’s response.

Job longed for God to grant what he hoped for (Job 6:8), but the Psalmist prayed with assurance: “Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God” (Psalm 38:15).

3. Hope enables confidence in God’s sovereign care.

“For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth” (Psalm 71:5).

4. Hope in God’s unfailing love delights His heart!

“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Psalm 147:11).

There are, of course, many other reasons hope is a worthy focus for us and those we love. Pam Farrel wrote about many of them in her book, Discovering Hope in the Psalms: A Creative Bible Study Experience, which I recommend.

Why would we NOT encourage more hope? Be proactive. Think of at least one person you can encourage with God’s kind of hope TODAY.

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator of three blogs: Heart Choices Today, LOL with God (with Pam Farrel), and Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for Revive Our Hearts and a writer at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in Southern California and have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Kareni at Pixabay.