The Truth About Pain and Hope 9.3.15 (2yr anniversary)

I've been described by people I love dearly as "the most hopeful person they know". But Life's recent avalanches have sent me on a journey to recover my hope. We all have things that try to take our hope away- be it a relationship struggle, a struggle with our health, or any of the numerous ways life can cause uspain.

This Blog is called "recovering hope" because I am in recovery from painful circumstances and I am recovering my hope. Hope is always under attack because belief in God is always under attack. Let's face it- nothing can quite make you doubt God like pain. Nothing can make you doubt in general like pain. I am convinced God does not cause us pain. But He has a plan for pain. Pain can be a result of our own bad choices or from others. Or as john 10:10 states "The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.". B-u-t... There is also hope- God said that we would have life! Not just a little bit of life but life to the full!

I am not placing blame for all my pain on others or blaming your pain on you. But I will not place blame for my pain on God. I do not mean to belittle anyone else's pain or struggle but I do mean to process my own. We cannot rise above our circumstances without God and all the positivity in the world will not erase the hurt you have experienced.

 
So, what is our hope? What is God's plan for pain? John 16:33 " I have told you this so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world".
That is our hope- Jesus overcame the worst betrayal, the worst physical, mental and emotional pain. Our hope is not only in God overcoming- He overcame because He was loved by the father.

 
He overcome because His father loved Him, and He loved us. The pain He went through was too have you- me- humanity. For us all to have salvation; a relationship, an eternal life that won't end. Our hope is that God loves us- past our worst mistake and through our worst pain. Our hope is that God overcame the worst pain. God's plan for our pain is that we will overcome too.

"In this world you will have trouble..." We are not promised to never experience pain or struggle.
But we are promised hope, healing, redemption, restoration. We are promised comfort through pain, comfort through struggle and enduring overcoming love through it all.
God is the only one who can validate our pain. I've been severely hurt by people that I love        ( like everyone) and I've wanted these people to validate my pain. To know how badly they hurt me. 

But God is the only one who can possibly know my pain or yours. God is the only one who can validate our pain. Without God, there is no hope or overcoming. But with God there is hope for healing, for a future without pain, for love that wont be betrayed. I am writing as someone still in the midst of their struggle and not on the other side of it just yet.

Life circumstances have forced me to see that maybe I had some false hope. Hope that would disappoint. In people I loved, in providing for myself, in having security outwardly. But these things are gone. As is the hope I had in them.
My prayers for others and myself is that our hope would be fully founded in Jesus, not in loved ones, jobs, or homes. Apart from God we have no hope. But with God we will overcome the worst wound and the worst struggle. 

I pray that you and I will see something redemptive come through pain.
The kind of thing only a God who makes the wrong things right can do. 
So, there is hope.

All content and Images Copyrights Hannah Lacy 2015-2017