Feeling Better: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

My Spirit: Everything just seems hopeless

"Keep Hope Alive" was Jesse Jackson's campaign slogan when he ran for president in 1988. And yet those words are more than just throwaway political placards and yard signs. Social change is impossible in communities that have given up. America's inner cities need to keep believing in America's central promise of freedom and equality under the law.

Do you know the taste and odor of despair? Of seeing nothing positive? Does your marriage seem permanently broken? As a single parent, do you fear that you will never find anyone to marry? Do you have addictive behaviors for many years that seem impossible to change?

You may have run out of ideas, run out of strength, or maybe even run out of the desire to keep struggling. But just because you have run out of strength doesn't mean that God is powerless too. Just because you're out of ideas doesn't mean that God's brain is dry. Just because you can't see the way out doesn't mean that God has lost his eagle's height view.

Here is a promise to all of God's children who need a breath of heavenly oxygen: "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all" (Psalm 34:19).