When Hope Seems To Perish

Notes
Transcript

Introduction- Black Women Resilience in the Midst of Grief

Happy Women’s History Month

Women’s history is an essential and indispensable part of the national narrative. By understanding the achievements, struggles, and contributions of women throughout history, we gain a fuller, more accurate, and more inclusive understanding of our collective past.
Hillary Clinton
Former First Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State

2026 Theme: “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” (Honor, Educate, Inspire, Connect, Envision)

expands our understanding of sustainability beyond just environmental concerns. It encompasses financial sustainability, community resilience, leadership succession, and intergenerational equity. Whether developing green technologies, advancing economic justice, strengthening education systems, or building civic power – women are designing blueprints for sustainable transformation. This theme affirms that shaping a sustainable future means fostering systems that support both people and the planet.

But What About Our Beautiful Black Women?

Mothers Who Raise kids & Wives Who Support Their husbands
Work In & Outside the Home
Well educated, Highly Qualified Yet Underpaid, Underemployed, & Under-appreciated
Dignified, Classy, Sophisticated & Yet Spicy With Attitude Edgy When Necessary
Faithfully Come to church, passionately serve in the church, & consistently supports the church financially
Rev. Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes- “If It Were Not For a the Women”

“You’re So Strong?”

That’s the phrase commonly used to describe black women.  Words that are often far from the truth within the minds of many black women.
“Grief is a normal yet complex and innate human experience that stems from an undesirable event, affecting not only our mental and physical well-being but also our spirit and overall quality of life. 2 Mourning is an outward expression of that grief, including cultural and religious customs surrounding the death. It is also the process of adapting to life after loss. 3 Bereavement is a period of grief and mourning after a loss. 4”
— Black Woman Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness by Natasha Smith
https://a.co/0dnqrotb
“Black women experience grief in many ways: the early loss of a parent, the early loss of a spouse, the early loss of a sibling, and/ or the death of a child. 1 While these are personal losses, we also experience living losses such as racism or career limitations due to discrimination, poverty, identity, time, and opportunities. ”
— Black Woman Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness by Natasha Smith
https://a.co/07OoOVgj

Supports everybody else but who supports you?

“Black women know grief from the time we are conceived in our mothers’ wombs, and yet we persist. Many of us carry Black woman grief forward like an embedded chromosome in our DNA. Contrary to popular belief, what doesn’t kill us doesn’t make us stronger. Black women need resources and strategies that help us name our grief, sit with it, and carve out a path outlined with hope.”
— Black Woman Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness by Natasha Smith
https://a.co/0gT3qgkg

Transition To Body- Hope Gone Due To Broken Faith

Hope is mentioned 5X in Lamentations chapter 3
Word study of “ hope” mentioned in

Losing Hope Everything Seems To Be Ruined

Lamentations 3:18 ESV
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”

hope, expectation, i.e., a positive future prospect

Hope That Is Eager

Lamentations 3:21 ESV
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
Lamentations 3:24 ESV
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

hope in, expect, looking to, i.e., await eagerly for a future event

wait, i.e., be in a certain state, implying a resolution to the waiting

Hope That Is Patient

Lamentations 3:26 ESV
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

waiting, i.e., pertaining to staying or continuing in a same state or position

Hope That Looks Forward To…

Lamentations 3:29 ESV
29 let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope;

hope, expectation, looking forward to, i.e., a confidence in regard to a good and beneficial future

Body- When Hope Seems To Perish…

Reign Of God’s Discipline (Lam. 3:1-21)

to possess or exercise sovereign power : RULE

He Has Driven & Brought Me… (Lam. 3:2)

He Has Made My Flesh & My Skin… (Lam. 3:4)

He Has Besieged & Enveloped Me… (Lam. 3:5)

He Has Made Me Dwell… (Lam. 3:6)

He Has Walled Me… (Lam. 3:7)

He Has Blocked My Ways… (Lam. 3:9)

He is a Bear… (Lam. 3:10)

He Turned aside my steps… (Lam. 3:11)

He Has made me desolate… (Lam. 3:11)

He Drove Into My Innermost Being… (Lam. 3:13)

So My Soul Continually Remembers… (Lam. 3:20-21)

Proverbs 3:11–12 ESV
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Hebrews 12:7–13 ESV
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

{

Reign Of God’s Discipline (Lam. 3:1-21)

}

Recollection Of God’s Mercies (Lam. 3:22-39)

Never-ending Mercies (Lam. 3:22-23)

compassion, mercy, pity, favor, i.e., the state or condition of receiving favor, and so in some contexts, not be in judgment or deserved punishment, implying relationship

Flattering Mercies (Lam. 3:24)

Satisfying Mercies (Lam. 3:25-27)

Note: Regarding the goodness of bearing the yoke when we are young

Compassionate Mercies (Lam. 3:31-36)

love, i.e., have feeling or attitude of strong affection toward an object, based on an association or relationship, which can manifest an act of kindness toward the object of one’s love and affection

Undeserved Mercies (Lam. 3:37-39)

{

Reign Of God’s Discipline (Lam. 3:1-21)

Recollection Of God’s Mercies (Lam. 3:22-39)

}

Repentance Of God’s People (Lam. 3:40-42)

Learn From Our Ways (Lam. 3:40)

search for, examine, i.e.,

Find Out Our Ways (Lam. 3:40)

explore, search out, discover, probe, sound out, examine, test, i.e.,

Repent Of Our Ways

Return

change behavior, i.e., turn or return to a manner of life and actions

turn to, i.e., have a change of opinion concerning a belief or truth, with a focus of returning to a proper, prior belief

turn back, repent, change back to a former association

{

Reign Of God’s Discipline (Lam. 3:1-21)

Recollection Of God’s Mercies (Lam. 3:22-39)

Repentance Of God’s People (Lam. 3:40-42)

}

Transition To Close- Diary Of Our Heart

— THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Women Writers of the World) by Anne Frank
https://a.co/0dVDFt8q
Written with insight, some humor, and intelligence, the Diary became a classic of war literature, personalizing the Holocaust and offering a moving coming-of-age story. To many, the book was also a source of inspiration and hope. During such adversity, Anne poignantly wrote, “I still believe, despite everything, that people are really good at heart.””

Let The Word Of Christ Dwell In You Richly

Colossians 3:16 ESV
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Close- Our Hope Is Christ

Proverbs 13:12 ESV
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
2 Peter 3:8–11 ESV
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

Those Led by the Spirit of God are the Children of God

Romans 8:14–17 ESV
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For in this Hope We Were Saved!

Romans 8:22–25 ESV
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

Romans 8:26–27 ESV
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:28–39 ESV
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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