When You Feel Hopeless, Start with Prayer - Daily Hope with Rick Warren - July 31, 2020
2020Jul 31
When You Feel Hopeless, Start with Prayer By Rick Warren
“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (Jonah 2:1 NIV).
Have you ever felt swallowed up by life? Maybe you were surrounded by depression, conflict, worry, or guilt—and you felt hopeless.
I hope you’re not feeling that way right now, but at some point you will. You might lose a loved one, your job, or your health.
When you’re faced with a hopeless situation, think about what Jonah did.
After Jonah had run from God’s mission for his life, God prepared a great fish to swallow him up. As he sat in that great fish, Jonah looked up to God.
In fact, the entire second chapter of this book is Jonah praying while he sinks into the ocean and gets swallowed by a giant fish. It’s a lesson to us that when we’re feeling overwhelmed, we need to look up to God in prayer.
From the very first verse of the chapter, you see Jonah turning to God: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (Jonah 2:1 NIV).
Some problems in life will never go away unless we learn to look to God in prayer.
In Mark 9, some of Jesus’ followers had been trying to drive a demon out of someone, but they couldn’t. They asked Jesus why.
Jesus responded: “This kind can come out only by prayer” (Mark 9:29 NIV).
Some problems are so deeply rooted that only persistent prayer will solve them. It’s not just about just a one-time prayer, either. If you only care about something enough to pray about it once, you don’t really care about it. If you truly want to see something happen in your life, you will pray about it over and over.
God wants to see whether you want it desperately enough to keep on praying! He’s more interested in building your faith than he in answering every little prayer.
If you’re feeling hopeless today, look up to God and keep praying. Never give up!
For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!
Build a Firm Foundation of Prayer in the Next Generation!
“Perhaps the most important role you can play in the life of a child is teaching them to trust God through prayer. It’s the key to living with hope.” —Pastor Rick
That’s why it’s so important to strengthen the hope of kids by introducing them to Jesus’ model for prayer at an early age. And we’re excited to help you do that with Pastor Rick’s children’s book, The Lord’s Prayer: Words of Hope and Happiness.
Filled with thoughtful insights from Pastor Rick as well as stunning illustrations from award-winning artist, Richard Jesse Watson, this book brings the poetic scripture from the King James Version alive for readers young and old. It’s sure to become a meaningful bedtime ritual, a treasured memory, and by God’s grace, a legacy that bears good fruit for generations to come.
This book is a perfect way to share the beauty and richness of The Lord’s Prayer with the children the Lord has placed in your life. And it’s our thanks for your gift below to help Daily Hope take the Good News to more people everywhere. So please request a copy for yourself or a friend today, and thanks for your generosity!
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