Follow-Up to Hopelessness
First, I just want to thank everyone for your overwhelming response to my previous post on hopelessness and it seems I am not the only one walking through a season of despair.

What I want to make abundantly clear is when God places a dream in your heart, He seals that dream with a promise to bring it to fruition. Then, He equips you with everything you need to accomplish that dream.

Every desire God places in your heart, He alone can meet and He wouldn’t give you the desire to do something without also giving you the ability to fulfill it. God is faithful and He gives you the desires of your heart. As you walk through life, he prepares you until you are complete and ready to become His masterpiece!

When people set out to accomplish their dreams, setbacks and disappointments are sure to arise, but in God’s hands your setbacks will become setups and your disappointments will become appointments to something greater than you could have imagined, if you keep your faith and trust in God.

Even if you feel like your time has passed, don’t give up!

No matter what’s happened to you, no matter what you’ve done and no matter what people say about you, God will make all things new in and through you. Each day you are here is another day to reach your God-given potential and destiny. Even if a dream seems to have died, trust God to have something new and better for you. The promises of God are eternal so never let go of them and He will never let go of you!
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Original Post
This last month has been one filled with disappointments, setbacks and people telling me I can’t or won’t be able to do things. You could say it has not been a good month, you could say at times it seems hopeless, and at times if I’m being totally honest that is how I feel. With another fusion surgery looming around the corner and people telling me I’m not good enough or that I won’t be able to do the things I know God has called me to do, it feels as though the dreams and aspirations God put in my heart are slipping through my fingers.

God’s Word says we are to cast our cares and our burdens on Him no matter how small or big they may seem and in Him we will find rest.

Rest is something I long for…

It is all but a fleeting and distant memory now. Some days, I’ll have a flashback of what life was like before everything changed, but even those are becoming rare. Lately, my nights have been plagued with painful spasms as my spinal cord is being compressed causing my body to violently jerk. I have prayed for healing and I know the Lord has heard my cries, but whether that healing happens supernaturally, naturally or on the other side of eternity, I must not lose hope because when you lose your hope, you lose your joy and the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Living with pain is a seductive dance; one in which your partner means to destroy you and she demands a response. The thorn in my side presses in deeper daily and attempts to rob me of any hope of its removal. Just as Satan waited until Jesus was at His weakest to tempt Him, he too has waited for an opportunity where I was weak and vulnerable to whisper his half-truths in my sleep deprived nights.

Sleep should literally be the easiest thing to do, but its sweet embrace eludes me.

The good news is I find my joy, my hope, my rest and my strength in the Lord; He is the ultimate source and with Him all things are possible.

You will never find joy, hope, rest, or strength in people, places or things, so every time someone says I’m not good enough, God says, “I am”; Every time someone says I can’t or I won’t, God says, “I can and I will.” Every time I feel like the burdens in my life are going to crush me, in that moment, God gives me everything I need to make it one more day. If you are in a similar place or have been experiencing any of what I’ve been talking about, look to God and find your joy and your hope in Him.

If you’ve lost your joy and hope, don’t just pray He gives them back to you, pray He gives you the strength to take them back from whomever or whatever has stolen them from you.

The promises of God are for you and in Christ you can be all things and you can do all things regardless of your circumstance and regardless of what anyone has told you.

God has put dreams and aspirations in each of your hearts, so grab hold of them and never let go of them. They will come to pass in His perfect time and according to His perfect plan. It may not look exactly like you had planned it. Just remember to keep your faith and trust in God because when you do it will always keep your destiny within reach.