You are not hopeless.

Unfulfilled dreams, expectations or hopes can leave us drained emotionally, physically and spiritually. How easily our disappointment can become hopelessness, leaving us living life every day without the fulfillment of God?s calling in our life. We become lethargic and broken. Hurt and complacent. Hopeless. God never meant for our lives to be lived like this.

For I know the plans I have for you,? says the Lord. ?They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

Dealing with hopelessness can often feel as though God has forgotten us, left us or doesn?t care. Why would He leave us broken if He loved us? Our view of God becomes skewed through the lens of our unhappiness. God?s view is the whole picture. He sees the whole journey?not just the moment. He understands the end from the beginning, and His concern is more with the process than the moment. Whether disappointment comes as a passing emotion or as a circumstance, or even as a permanent change in our lives, God is using it for our good. I will admit that disappointment seldom feels good.

To me, it?s like a diet. Saying ?no? to the cheesecake is difficult, but we do it for the long-term result. We say no to the foods we love to feel happier and more content with the body we have?even though the moment we say ?no? to the cheesecake doesn?t mean we instantly drop ten pounds. The results may not show up right away, but you do it for the long-term effects. God sees your life in totality; He sees the full perspective, and though we may not see the results or the changes we want to see right away, He is always producing in us the ability to sustain the call He has on our lives. God is always working out matters for our good?even when we don?t see His plan. That?s what hope is! Trusting in the Lord, not only in the good times and in the blessing but when we don?t see or feel it.

When we feel disappointed with where we are or feel hopeless about where we are headed, we tend to talk more defeat to ourselves than victory. ?I can?t?? ?I won?t?? ?I am not qualified?? Yet God?s promise to us is a hope?not hopelessness.

Jeremiah 29, a scripture often quoted about God?s promise for our life was spoken to the Israelites while they were in Babylonian captivity. When God?s chosen people wandered in the wilderness, God spoke a promise over their life. I am sure seeing any freedom in their future was incredibly difficult, but God saw it. God knew the promise was coming because He loves His people. This is the promise He has for you even in the wilderness and when it?s difficult to see, and even when it doesn?t happen right away. The Israelites remained in captivity for another 70 years. Do you know what else God tells them? That in this place where they are now, they need to prosper. He tells the Israelites to prosper in their wilderness.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ?Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper?

(Jeremiah 29:4-7, NIV).

Wherever you are, daughter, prosper. In this crazy, overwhelming season of motherhood, prosper. In this season of career building, prosper. In this season of studying and education, prosper. In whatever season you are facing, however difficult your season may feel, and whether you are facing a short- or long-term disappointment?even in that midst of it, you can prosper in the Lord. Hopelessness does not have to mark your life. Take your eyes off people and circumstances, and fix them on the Lord, the One who desires for you to have a future and a hope.