Terri said:
Can anyone help me understand why a Christian would loss hope.
If a Christian says that they don't have hope is it something that they are doing wrong, is it God not giving them the gift of hope, or is it something else?
This is very, very important to me guys and I would appreciate your help. I know I can trust the opinions of ya'll that truly understand grace!
Terri, as others have, I can speak from my own personal experience with loss of hope (both before, and after, becoming a Reformed Christian). I have experienced deep pain (physical and mental), grief, and trauma in my life. My mother was clinically depressed, and I have also struggled with severe depression. I also have a physical disability, and that has been very hard (although it has also been a deep gift in many ways).
My faith has greatly helped to keep me from losing hope. Before I became Reformed though, I constantly looked at my circumstances in life and allowed them to "shake me" emotionally, and even spiritually, at times. I don't know that I ever lost
ultimate (i.e. eternally-minded) hope, but my depression nearly
did bring me to despair of my earthly life. (My own history with non-Reformed theology leads me to think that it leaves one more open to loss of hope, both temporally and eternally.) Because I did not understand (and/or accept) God's sovereignty over all things, I experienced a much greater degree of anxiety and depression. I saw myself as being at the mercy of people and circumstances which were outside of my control. I was partially right about that-- I
didn't have control (at least not the kind of control that I wanted), but that was not a cause for despair! When God brought me to understand and accept the doctrines of grace, as taught in the Bible, I finally saw the awesome truth that He
is in control! No harm-- nothing painful in any way, in fact-- can come to me unless He allows it, and
if He allows it, then I can
know that it is for my ultimate good! This knowledge has been an unspeakable comfort to me. Now that I am Reformed, I also understand that I had
nothing to do with my salvation. God could have justly chosen to leave me dead in my sins, damned for all eternity, but He graciously chose to save me!
He saved me, and
He will keep me! The former has contributed greatly to my general thankfulness in life, while the latter has lessened my anxiety. Part of my earlier, ongoing depression had been a lack of gratitude toward God. I did not understand just how much He had blessed me and just how indebted I was to Him. Although I wouldn't have admitted it at the time, I thought that, since
I had "chosen" Him, He was somehow "obligated" to save me! (I find this to be one of the greatest problems with non-Reformed understandings of Christianity.) He basically
owed me salvation! Oh, how wrong I was was... praise God for setting me right on that crucial point!!!
I now have much more gratitude to God (and hence, much less resentment and depression) than I once did.
Now, having said all of the above, there are still times when I struggle with depression. Even knowing what I know about God, I can still lose my perspective and look too much at my circumstances and at how "badly" certain things seem to be going in my life. However, God is merciful to me. He always realigns my view to Him and His good purposes. I may not always understand the painful things that He allows in my life, and in the lives of others, but I know that He is in control of all things (even the evil acts of people). Being Reformed (which really just means, being Biblical!) in my theology, I now have peace and comfort that I have never had before in my life. Even better, I have a deeper, more true understanding of the God of the Bible! All glory belongs to Him!