Today I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were
the wrong person for the job, Like, what did you get yourself into
You didn't have the right experience or the right skill set? Well, I
know I have and you probably have too. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Okay, today we're going
to continue with the series The Manifestation of Your Life Mission. Rick is showing
us that no matter how big the thing is that God is calling us to
do, we don't have to run away from it. We can actually run
toward it. This is such a good message, and I hope you'll invite
a friend to listen along with you as we discover how to embrace God's calling
on our lives and how we can live according to the purpose and plan that
He has for us. Let's join Rick as he shares part two of a
message called what to Do When it Feels Hopeless. I want to read your
poem. It's over one hundred years old. That's why I got named sam
Foss. It's called the Prayer of Farmer Brown. The proper way for one
to pray, said Pastor Samuel Keyes, is to humble yourself before the Lord
and get down on your knees. No, I say that the way to
pray, said Pastor David Wise, is the stand up straight with outstretched arms
and eyes turned to the skies. Oh no, no, no, said
Pastor Slow. That posture is too proud. We should all pray with eyes
closed tight and heads contritely bowed. Well, I believe your hands should be
gently clasped in front, with both thumbs pointing towards the ground, said Pastor
Johnny Blunt. But last year I fell into a well head first, said
Farmer Brown. Both of my feet were sticking up and my head was pointing
down. Yet in my distress, I called out the God with the most
honest words I've said. Yes, the best prayers I've ever prayed was standing
on my head. It doesn't matter how you now, I wrote a few
extra verses. I added these. Then Jonah said these all may be true
for each one of you, so use whichever one you wish. But as
for me, my best prayer came in the belly of a fish. It
was dark and wet and cold and scary, but my prayers raced like a
comet. They streaked across the sky to God, and he made that big
fish vomit. So when and how and where you pray are matters of private
fashion. Just be sure that when you pray, you present your needs with
passion. All right, I think I'll stick to preaching, not poetry.
Okay, all right, here's the third thing you do when you are feeling
hopeless. You're gonna need this someday. You better write this down. Identify
the cause of my hopelessness. Identify the cause of my hopeless. Hopelessness is
a vague feeling, and you can't deal with a vague feeling. You can't
work with a problem. You can't solve a problem. You can't even pray
about a problem until you identify the problem. You got to identify it.
You got to identify the cause of my hope. You can't counteract the feeling
unless you name it. Have you ever had a general vague feeling of uneasiness
and you're feeling down, you're feeling hopeless, and you go, I don't
know why I feel this way. I don't know why. Well, you
can't work on it until you name it. When you name the feeling,
that in itself helps you get a handle on it. Anything you can't name
is already out of control in your life. So if you got this vague
feeling of depression, or vague feeling of down or discouragement, or vague feeling
of hopelessness, you need to stop and go what's really going on here?
What's behind this? You need to pinpoint the source. And this is what
Jonah did you know? Years ago, I did a study of what causes
people to lose hope and I discovered I read extensively, literally everything I could
possibly read on hopelessness, and I discovered that they're about ten common causes of
hopelessness. Hopelessness isn't the problem. The problem is what's causing the hopelessness in
your life. And as interesting as I read Jonah's vivid description of what's going
through his mind is he's sinking down and he's praying this prayer and he's sinking
below the waves and he's swallowed by that fish. I discovered he illustrates a
bunch of those common causes of opuses. So for your benefit, I just
want to point them out. I want to read through part of Jonah's prayer
and I want us to pick out causes of hopelessness. Because then you'll know,
Oh, this is what's really making me feel bad. It's not this
vague sense of hopelessness. You can't work on it until you name it,
all right, So let me read verse three to six in Jonah Chapter two.
Jonah, this is his prayer. You God cast me into the deep
water, and I sank to the bottom of the sea. Everything was churning
around me, and I was engulfed by powerful waves that overwhelmed me. Then
I thought, I've been banished from God's presence and I'll never get to see
your holy temple again. I was scared to death, afraid I was drowning,
with water choking me and the seaweed wrapped all around my head. This
is pretty graphic. I kept sinking down to the ocean floor, to the
mountains that rise off the ocean floor, and I felt locked in a prison
forever. Now, in that passage, he gives us eight common causes of
hopelessness. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on these,
but I want you to check any one of these that you may be
feeling right now, because this could be a precursor to depression or hopelessness in
your life. Okay, So here are eight feelings that cause us to feel
hopeless, and Jonah mentions them all. Number one first feeling I'm in over
my head. Feeling that I'm in over my head. You know when you
feel like I don't have My situation exceeds my knowledge, My situation needs my
ability, the situation exceeds my finances. I'm in over my head. I've
been thrown into the deep end. Jonah says, you cast me into the
deep water. He's saying, I'm way out of my depth. I'm into
deep. I'm in deep trouble. When do you feel like you're in over
your head? That's going to cause you to feel hopeless. Number two feeling
I've hit bottom can cause hopelessess. Feeling I've hit bottom. I sank to
the bottom of the sea. He said there was no way I could go
any lower. I was at an all time low. And that when you
feel you can't go any lower, when you feel I have hit rock bottom
or the bottom fell out and I've gone even lower, I'm as low as
you can go. I've hit bottom. That's going to cause hopelessness. Third
feeling job says, feeling out of control and powerless, feeling out of control
and powerless. He says in the next phrase, everything was churning circle that
churning around me. You ever felt like that everything was churning around you.
You feel out of control, and you feel powerless to change anything. You're
you're drifting without direction, motion without meaning. You've got activity without clarity,
You've got pressure without purpose. You're just drifting around. Everything's churning around me.
I'm drifting around. I'm swept along by outside forces. You're all over
the map. That's feeling out of control and powerless. Number four. Fourth
thing feeling overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed can cause you to be hopeless. I was
engulfed, Jonah says, by powerful waves that overwhelmed me. I'm in golf.
That means I'm helpless to change it. I'm engulfed. The powerful is
so powerful, I'm overwhelmed by it. Number five feeling rejected or lonely.
Either of these could cause you to feel hopeless. Feeling rejected or feeling that's
the real cause of the hopelessness, not the hopelessness. He says. Then
I thought I've been banished from God's presence. A loneeness can cause hopelessness,
Jonah saying, I feel like God's a million miles away. I feel rejected,
I feel on my own. I feel alone. That can cause hopelessness
in your life. Number six feeling remorse and regret. You can use this
checklist with friends when you're helping them trying to figure out what's what's making them
feel so bad. Feeling remorse or regret, Jonah says, and I'll never
get to see your holy temple again. I'll never He's got He's filled with
remorse, he's filled with regret. He knows the problem is his own fault.
He was running from God. You can run from God, but then
you can't run anymore because you can run, but you can't hide. Down
here on the screens. On forty two, verse four, David says,
my heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be. That's a
cause for hopelessness. My heart is breaking for remembering how it used to be.
I feel remorse, I feel regret, I may feel I may feel
guilt because it was so good, but I ran from God. I ran
from God, and my heart's breaking as I remember how it used to be.
Number seven big cause of hopelessness feeling crushing fear. Feeling crushing fear,
Jonah says, I was scared to death. I was afraid. I was
afraid. I was drowning with water choking me and seaweed wrapped all around my
head. Circle that word choking. Did you know that the word were The
English word worry comes from the old English word worgan. You know what worgan
means to choke, to strangle. Worry has a strangling, choking feeling on
your life. It can choke the life of anxiety. Worry, fear can
choke the life out of it. They can choke the hope out of you.
Feeling crushing fear. And the eighth thing he says is I was feeling
trapped. That's feeling trapped. I felt locked in a prison forever. Other
translations, I felt behind bars and somebody had thrown away the key. Now,
as we go through that list, are you feeling any of these right
now? I meant over my head of hit bottom, feel out of control,
feel powerless, feel overwhelmed, feel lonely, I feel rejected, I
feel remorse or regret, feel crushing fear, feel trapped. Only when you
name what you're feeling, Only when you identify what you're feeling. Can you
actually pray about it specifically? But once you know what's the cause of your
hopossess, then you can go to the next step, number four. Here's
number four. Ask God for specific help. Now you sink God, I'm
feeling out of control. God, I'm feeling regret. I'm feeling remorse.
God, I'm feeling fear. God, I'm feeling trapped. God, I'm
feeling any of these things we just listed. You talk to God specifically about
those things. Be specific Jonah two, verse two. The second party says,
from the deep, from deep in the world of the dead, I
ask for help, and you listen to my cry. Now that deep in
the world could indicate that maybe he eventually died in that fish and was resurrected.
We don't know. That's just a guess. Psalm fifty, verse fifteen.
God says, call to me in your times of trouble, and I
will save you and you will honor me. So once I know what's the
source, I've named what I'm really feeling. I does's have this vague feeling
of feeling bad. I know what's causing I know the thorn. Then I
begin to pray specifically. Now here's the key to asking for help. I
want you to write this down, pray the word of God. Write this
down, pray the word of God. What do I mean by that?
I mean take scripture and say them back to God. This is what Jonah
did to get his miracle. Jonah clearly is well versed in the Bible,
because in this very short prayer he prays eight different scriptures. Everything he said
is a quote from Psalms. He's eight times he quotes Psalms. He's just
quoting what other people have complained about in the Bible. Now, it's a
whole lot better to pray the Bible back to God. God loves to hear
his words prayed back to him. He said, well, what should I
pray? Write these down? Three things you should pray. Pray the complaints
to God. Pray the complaints of the Bible to God. Everything Jonah just
prayed is actually in the book of Psalms. He's just saying I felt this
way, I felt this way. He's quoting David. You wouldn't know that
unless you knew scripture. But you pray the complaints to God. So when
you read one of those lamentation verses or chapters or psalms. You can go
God, this is my prayer, and you pray to God. God,
I am angry with you right now. You pray the complaints to God.
Laments as I said, they're in job, They're in psalms, they're in
lamentations, the Book of Lamitations. Number two. Pray the truth about God.
That's the second thing. Pray the complaints of God. Pray the truth
of God about God. God. You're a good God. God. You're
a gracious God. God. You're a just God. God, You're a
fair God. You pray what the Bible says about God. Back to God.
Okay, God, here's my complaints. They're in the Bible. Here's
what the Bible says about you. That's in the Bible. And then the
third thing, you pray the promises of God. God, you promised to
do this. Now keep your word. I can't tell you how many times
in prayers I've said, God, I need you to keep your word.
God, I need you to do what you've promised to do. You have
promised right here, and I'll say the promise if I've got it, memorize
you have promised to do this. God. I need you to keep your
word, pray the complaints of the Bible, pray the truth of the Bible,
and pray the promises of the Bible. Number five. Fifth thing you
do. Focus on the goodness of God to me. When everything looks dark,
when everything I can't see ahead, there's a fog, it's shrouded.
I can't see the future. It's pitch black, there's no light at the
end of the tunnel. I focus on the goodness of God to me.
And what I'm gonna have to do is I'm gonna have to mentally shift my
mind. When I'm hopeless. I'm going to have to choose to stop thinking
about the things that are making me feel hopeless. And I'm gonna have to
choose to change the channel of my mind and start thinking about the things that
I can be. I know for sure they're gonna lift my spirit. The
goodness of God, how he's been good to me in the past, how
He's promised to be good to me in the future. And on an app
in verse seven, Jonah says this, when I had lost all hope,
I turn my thoughts once more to the Lord. Friends, that's the answer
to hopeless us right there, when I had lost all hope. I turned
my thoughts once more to the Lord. I turned back to the goodness of
God and the greatness of God, and the power of God, and the
love of God, and the fairness and the justice of God, and the
kindness of God. I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord, and
in my earnest prayer and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy
temple. He's talking about heaven. Now, you know, the Bible,
in the Old Testmen's written in Hebrew. But the Greek word for turning your
thoughts is the word metanoia. You know what that word is. It's the
word for repent. Repentance simply means to turn your thoughts. That's all it
means. Repentance does not mean stop doing bad stuff. Repentance means change your
mind, turn your thoughts, think about it in a different way. Look
at life from God's viewpoint instead of my own viewpoint. Look at the goodness
of God, not the problems in my life. I turn my thoughts metanoia.
I repent. When you feel hopeless, you need to change the channel
of your mind. You need to change your focus. You look at your
problems. You'll be distressed. You look within, you'll be depressed. You
look at Christ, you'll be at rest. All depends on what you're looking
at. You look at the world, you'll be distressed. Look around,
you'll be distressed. You look within, you'll be depressed. You look at
Christ, you'll be at rest. All depends on what you're focused on.
You change the channel. When I had lost all hope, I turn my
thoughts once more to the Lord. What a beautiful verse. You need to
memorize that verse. You need to take it home, write it on a
card, and you need to doe Jonah two seven by heart. Everybody who's
listening to the Sign of My Voice should memorize that verse because one day you're
going to be driving a car and you're in an accident and you think this
is the end, and you'll say, and when I had lost all hope,
I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord, And that verse will
be there for you. It can't help you if you don't hide it in
your heart. The Bible has all of the things to get rid of your
hopelessness, you just don't know where they are. And if you've poured over
this verse like Jonah did, he knew the psalms so well that when he's
drowning, he can quote eight different psalms from memory. And he's quoting the
goodness of God, and he's quoting the complaints of David, and he's quoting
the promises that are going to save him. Can you do that? That's
God's way of getting out of hopelessness. You need to start thinking about God's
word instead of thinking about your worries. If you're thinking about your worries,
it's just going to be swirling down, down, down down. If you're
thinking about God's word, it's going to be going up up up, Look
up when you hit bottom. Now, one of the psalms that Jonah remembers
and quotes is actually Psalm twenty seven. Look up here on the screen.
Jonah says, I would have despaired, I guess so, unless I had
believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord, I would have been
in despair. Unless I had believed, I'm going to focus on the goodness
of God. God's goodness to me. When I lost all hope, I
turned my thoughts once more to God. God, You're a good God.
This is not a good situation, and it's my fault. I recognize it.
It's my fault. I'm here because I was running from you. It's
my sin that caused this pain, this problem. I know it. But
You're still a good God even when I'm not good, and I will turn
my thoughts to the Lord. I would have the spirit unless i'd believe that
I would see the goodness of the Lord. You know this verse that I
just read you, You just know it. In the New International Version,
we sing it all the time. Look out up here on the screen,
here's the same word. The Lord is my Light and salvation. Whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life? Of whom shall
I be afraid? I will remain This is verse thirteen. I will remain
confident to this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land
of the living. He was anywhere but the land of the living when he's
praying that prayer. I remember quoting that verse standing out in front of my
son's home when my youngest son, Matthew, lost his battle with mental illness
and took his life. It was the worst day of my life, and
I remember saying, the Lord is my Light and salvation. Who shall I
fear? Who shall I be afraid? I will remain confident of this.
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living.
He will not return to me, but I will return to him one day.
Regardless of what you're going through, God's purpose, God's grace, God's
mission for your life is greater than the problem you were going through right now.
I will remain confident of this. When I had lost all hope,
I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord. As I said earlier,
you need to memorize that verse. Even when the problem is your fault.
It was Jonah's fault. He got himself into that mess. That didn't stop
the grace of common You know, people are being transformed by these messages.
In fact, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners. Today,
I want to share a testimony from Ella, who listens to Daily Hope
in Canada, and she started listening to our broadcast during COVID nineteen pandemic.
She wrote, Pastor Rick, like so many, I found every area of
my life flipped upside down when the pandemic hit in twenty twenty. I graduated
from the university in April that year and I was lost and desperate for guidance.
Yet as stubborn as I was, I searched for answers everywhere else except
in God's Word. But out of desperation, I read the purpose Driven Life
and I started listening to Daily Hope. Daily Hope was one of the resources
that became monumental in my journey to giving my life to Christ a year after
I started listening. And so I want to thank you, and I want
to thank everyone at Daily Hope for all the work that you do. It
must seem so abstract when people you reach are all over the world, but
I know I'm not alone. And saying that Daily Hope has helped me find
comfort and God when I needed it most. Wow, Ella, thank you
so much. Thank you for writing. Thank you for telling me that you've
accepted Christ. You know, I know so many people who are just like
you. They're lost, they're looking for answers, and they keep looking everywhere
but in the right place, God's word for the truth. But praise God,
you found the word of God. You believed his word, and you
believe that Jesus is the truth. So it's a blessing, it's a blessing
to know that God is using this broadcast to help bring you and other people
to Him on a daily basis. Now, you mentioned that it must be
unusual to reach people around the world even though I'm not able to meet him
face to face, and I'd like to say this, I wish I could
meet everybody face to face. I wish I could take every one of you
out to a corner restaurant, sit down and have a cup of coffee and
just let me hear your life story. I would nothing would make me feel
happier than doing that. But that's why I'm blessed to receive letters. Please
write me, Please tell me your story. I want to know how God
is changing your life, how God is using his word through Daily Hope to
make a difference in you. So let me know what God's doing in your
life. Let me know how He's using Daily Hope to help you in your
Christian walk, and that way we can pray intelligently for you. If you'd
like to bless Pastor Rick by letting him know how much this broadcast has helped
you, please send him an email at Rick at pastorick dot com. That's
Rick at pastor dot com. We hope you'll join us next time when we
look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor
Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.