2013-01-14T09:27:05-05:00 GCI info@gospel.com /feeds/topics/despair/ http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/calling-off-the-pity-party-6786 2013-01-14T09:27:05-05:00 Jesus told us that we would find our life - not by looking for it, not by hanging onto it - by giving it away, He said. Not because you feel like it, but because Jesus lived like that, and because you know that's where to find light at the end of your own personal tunnel. Remember, even when you get home tonight, ask yourself the question, "So, who needs me here right now?" http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/bankruptcy-makes-you-rich-6710 2012-09-28T09:36:55-05:00 Our safe, predictable, well resourced Christianity insulates us from really living by faith. And then God allows the bottom to drop out, just so He can hold you up. And you find out what He can do when there's none of you and it's all God. And then you can learn that He's enough. He fills up your empty account and in a paradox that only God could reveal to us. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-most-important-relationship/sad-success-6547 2012-02-14T12:02:35-05:00 For 2,000 years, Jesus has been the sustaining fulfillment for millions of us when life's spotlights go off. He's been the one love that's cherished us like no other, to the point of laying down His life so we wouldn't have to die for our sins. Until we commit ourselves to this God who gave His life for us and then rose from the grave to be alive to come into our life, our hearts are, in the Bible's words, "like the tossing sea which cannot rest...there is no peace" (Isaiah 57:20-21 ). http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/turbulence-that-transforms-6251 2010-12-27T11:21:42-05:00 The shaking you're enduring, the hits you're taking, those are tools in God's hands to bring out an amazing beauty in you: a strength, a tenderness, a maturity, a confidence, a compassion that comes only from being beautified in God's tumbler. So don't wallow in the "why is this happening?" quagmire. Instead, keep asking, "How can God use this?" http://gospel.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/23/todays-devotional-finding-beauty-amidst-brokenness/ 2010-07-07T09:06:07-05:00 Can beauty come out of brokenness? God has the startling ability to bring out moments of grace and beauty out of even the most wrenching despair. http://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-hard-times/the-garbage-miracle-3010 2009-10-01T10:43:06-05:00 Beauty from ashes - praise from despair - something very special from something very ugly. If you will let Jesus be the Lord of your life's pile of garbage, He can make of it a mountain from which many will be able to see Him. http://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%203:3&version=KJV 2009-09-20T17:14:31-05:00 God is described as the "lifter of my head"--the one who notices when we are sad and despairing, and gives us strength and hope so that we can hold our heads up high again. http://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%204:8-10&version=KJV 2009-08-07T00:24:17-05:00 Christians can be beaten down and persecuted, but the Christian faith can never be destroyed--and suffering believers can take comfort in the fact that Christ suffers with them. http://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2031:8-10&version=NIV 2009-07-22T16:06:24-05:00 Have you ever felt broken down and at your wit's end? The writer of this psalm can relate; in this passage, he appeals to God for help and relief from the grief and pain he's experiencing. God does not neglect such a cry, but provides safety and comfort. http://biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2073.1-Psalm%2073.28&version=NIV 2009-07-21T16:44:28-05:00 The writer of this psalm experiences deep, wrenching emotions that we might recognize as depression or despair: his heart was grieved and his spirit embittered; he could not break out of his bleak mood alone. He finds strength and encouragement only in God and His faithfulness.