Despair Is Simply Distress Without Any Hope

​Distress is a challenging situation.

Despair is a refusal to believe the situation will ever get better.

Distress is I need a drink.

Despair is the belief that how could it make things any worse.

Distress is marriage counseling.

Despair is what good could that possibly do.

Distress is I am aging.

Despair is I have nothing left to offer the world.

Distress is crying in the dark.

Despair is the belief that the light will never come back on.

Distress is I failed.

Despair is I must be a failure.

Distress is I feel lonely.

Despair is the belief no one will ever come.

Distress is I made a mistake.

Despair is there is no possible way to redeem this.

Distress says this hurts.

Despair says I deserve it.

There have been many distressful situations in my life that I've found a way to use to think myself into despair. And through those experiences, I have found it is much easier to think my way out of distress than it is to think my way out of despair.

Once you land in despair, hope is hard to find. It seems to disappear.

God is ultimately my source of hope, but I have discovered if I allow my distress to become my despair, that is where I am most likely to believe that my distressful situation is beyond even God's repair.

That is precisely why the devil is always more than willing to contribute thoughts that will help me convince myself that this temporary distress is surely a forever hurt. The devil's goal is to keep me as far away from God as possible; despair is a pretty good way of accomplishing that.

There was a day when I was really good at thanking God once he got me through something. (Often on the other side of despair). But today, in an effort to protect my distress against despair, I try to assure God in the midst of my distress that I know he's got me.

For that is the antidote to despair, believing that something greater than us will see us through our distress.

It's important to turn to that voice of something greater in the midst of distress, because there is certainly a voice longing to drag me into a place of despair.

And once you land in despair, hope is hard to find. It seems to disappear.