Losing Heart

What Happens When You Lose Heart

We saw a bumper sticker the other day which read “Not feeling close to God Lately; then Who Moved”.

Living life can wear on you, especially when you don’t see any hope of things getting better before they get much worse. It can be easy to find one self disheartened, worn out, wondering if it is worth it. When so few others seem to care about what God has deemed as important. Reading Jeremiah 15:15-21 I find the words I needed to hear.

The prophet expresses his loss of heart, kind of a hopeless, helplessness. His frustration that it seems even God has left his side. He sees all of the problems in his life are directly connected to his devoted following of the LORD, … for I have been called by Your name …

His abhorrent feelings toward the people and their ways are because of his love for God’s word and way. He has been expelled from society, rejected by men and now he feels abandon by the LORD. He hurts and the hurt doesn’t diminish over time, …why is my pain perpetual…

God answers the prophet in what seemed an unusual word. “If you return, then I will restore you … if you extract the precious from the worthless … For I am with you to save you and deliver you.”

Take another look at the Lord’s answer. It wasn’t that God had abandon Jeremiah, but the other way around. Jeremiah had become consumed with thinking about his situation and sorrow and had lost sight of God.

So what was/is the solution?

Get rid of the worthless things in your life. Psalm 115 speaks of the creation of man’s hands, specifically idols, how when we serve and focus on something we become like that something. Focus on your problems and yourself you become self-absorbed, sort of an inverted pride.

Focus instead on the LORD. When everything in this world says as Job’s wife did “Curse God and die” remember the faith, hope and love that saved you. Hebrews 11 says without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is active not passive. It trusts in God when everything else around you seems to say He has abandoned you.

He is always faithful even when we can’t see Him. He is working all this out for your good and His glory. May He find us faithful.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Philippians 3: 7