The Pain of Hopelessness
Notes
Transcript
1) Pain Reveals Our Need To Be Comforted
1) Pain Reveals Our Need To Be Comforted
People are not always the best comforters
Sympathy vs Empathy
The New International Version Chapter 1
8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
2) Pain Determines Our Direction Towards God
2) Pain Determines Our Direction Towards God
Either moves us closer to God or farther away from God
Hannah (closer)
11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
Sara (farther away)
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Rachel (farther away)
1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
3) Pain Produces Honest And Sincere Prayers
3) Pain Produces Honest And Sincere Prayers
12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.
13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk
14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.
16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
4) Pain Does Not Mean That God Has Forgotten About Us
4) Pain Does Not Mean That God Has Forgotten About Us
God is not a stranger to our pain
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.
20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
12 Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job.
13 Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
Pain Should Always Lead Us To Hope
Pain Should Always Lead Us To Hope