There Is Hope - Soul Choice Ministries

If you are a Christian going through a difficult time, where there seems to be no way out, and you are feeling completely discouraged, there is hope for you. God knows what you are facing. He loves you and wants to help you out of all your troubles, no matter how severe, or no matter what you have done. You may feel you have done all you can, but you sense you have been hindered in some way. This is just what Paul the Apostle experienced.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:18 Paul said, “Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again, but Satan hindered us.”

Sometimes we are stopped by the demonic, and other times it may not be God’s timing, or we are lacking a strategy. The word, “hindered,” Paul used is the word “enkopto.” It was used to describe a road that was impassable due to its deterioration. At times like this, we are to step back and ask God for wisdom on how and when to proceed. Don’t consider this a defeat, but just a Godly strategy needed to accomplish your goal. Or you may feel that you have hit a dead end, and it’s an impossible situation. Paul felt the same way many times.

In 2 Corinthians 1:9 he said, “In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves.”

He actually thought he was going to die. The word “sentence” is the word “Apokrima” and also “Krino” and refers to “a jury handing down the final sentence, or a verdict, to condemn in a legal sense.” In other words; it’s finished and there is no way out.

We need to surrender all of our problems to God, and cast our cares on Him, as 1 Peter 5:7 states. Paul thought he was dead, but God sent His resurrection power to help him. God can turn our dead-end problems into life-giving victories. We rely on His power to make a way when it appears there is no way. Other times, problems can arise because we missed God’s instruction, or His timing. We all can miss God. This is why we need more prayer to hear from the Holy Spirit for direction.

I remember a time when I felt hopeless. I shared this in a previous podcast. Many years ago, I became a board member at the church I was attending at that time. The Lord clearly warned me three times not to join the board, but the pastor kept asking and almost insisting that I should be a member. He felt it was right, but God had told me no. Well, I gave in and accepted the position. That year, for exactly one year to the day, I didn’t make any money at all and accumulated a lot of debt – even though I was working very diligently. God stopped my income, and it was my fault.

The point is that I didn’t hear from God that entire year. I was accustomed to hearing His voice, and now it was as if He had turned His back on me. I felt abandoned by God, and that is the worst, most helpless, hopeless feeling one could ever experience. Once you have been accustomed to close fellowship with God, and then it seems He is not there, it’s the loneliest place you can imagine. It truly is awful to feel abandoned by God. Of course, He did not abandon me. It just felt that way since He was silent.

During that entire year, God still enabled me to pay all my bills with no late notices, maintained my credit, held onto my home, and provided food. And then He restored all I had lost, and I paid off the debt in only 3 months. He was there the whole time, just silent.

David said in Psalms 28:1, “Do not be silent to me, Lest, You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.”

In hell, people do not hear from God. The Bible records that on many occasions, David desperately needed God’s help. He had King Saul and his entire army hunting him down for 13 years, trying to kill him. The king himself threw a spear at David twice, and narrowly missed him. David had to dwell in caves in the wilderness, and even live among his archenemies over the years to try and stay alive. David did not cease crying out to God.

Psalms 38:22, “Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!”

Psalms 71:12, “O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!”

Psalms 102:2, “Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble; Incline Your ear to me; In the day that I call, answer me speedily.”

With David, the bottom line was that God not only protected him but delivered him from all his enemies, and made him King over all Israel. He ended up with a vast army who were loyal to him, and he reigned over Israel for 40 years. Listen to what David said:

Psalms 54:7, “For God has delivered me out of all trouble.”

Then his son King Solomon said:

Proverbs 11:8, “The righteous is delivered from trouble and it comes to the wicked instead.”

This next verse is for you:

Psalms 107:6, “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them out of their distresses.”

If you’re fighting an illness:

Psalms 107:20, “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.”

Look at Joseph, a son of Jacob, in the Old Testament. He was hated by his own brothers, and was thrown into a pit by them with no water. He was then sold to evil men, carried off to a foreign land, made a slave, was falsely accused, placed in a dungeon for at least two years, and was separated from his family for 20 years.

During all the abuse, he prayed continually and never denied his God. Listen to the end result in this next verse:

Acts 7:10, “And the patriarchs, Joseph’s brothers, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.”

He went from the dungeon to becoming second in command in one day, like being Vice President.

Let’s look once more in the New Testament, Paul the Apostle. He was beaten, stoned, left for dead, shipwrecked, stranded in the sea for a day and night, harassed by many, mobs gathered against him, he was placed in chains and stocks in a dungeon, beaten many times with open sores left in a filthy pit, bitten by a poisonous snake, lied about, slandered, brought before leaders to be falsely accused, and many more horrors. Yet in all of that, the end result was what he said in 2 Timothy 3:11: “What persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.”

Did you hear that? He was delivered out of all of them. Since God delivered them, he is well able to deliver you. Place your trust in Him, as did these men of God. God has no favorites.

In Acts 10:34 Peter said, “I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”

2 Thessalonians 3:3, “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”

That is a strong promise from God. God is so faithful! Feed on God’s word and then you will be able to show God your faith, that you fully trust in His promises, and you are not moved by your circumstances. He will deliver you out of all your problems.