The Antidote to a Downcast Heart

Blues musician B.B. King sang, “I’ve been downhearted, baby, ever since the day...” Do you have downhearted days? “The day we found out my spouse has cancer”; “The day I lost my job, with three kids to support”; “The day my uncle began to abuse me”; “The day we learned our son was addicted to drugs.” We all have situations and circumstances that make us downcast, as did many of the greatest saints.

Look at King David: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” (Psalm 42:5, ESV); “My soul is cast down within me” (Psalm 42:6). These verses are repeated throughout the Psalms. Most biblical heroes of the faith faced troubling situations that caused them to be heartsick.

Comfort Through the Storms

In Psalm 42, David asks his soul why he is downcast. Maybe he was facing all three types of being downcast (see sidebar). David asks the question that we all have asked when facing discouragement: Why? The why question is associated with a struggling soul. Why did my child die? Why is my marriage loveless? Why am I depressed? Why doesn’t God help? And from Jesus himself, “Why have you forsaken me?”

The disciples of Jesus had their own “Why?” They had been comfortable sitting in the sun by the seashore, listening to Jesus. Then Jesus disturbs this comfort: “Let us go across to the other side” (Mark 4:35). Jesus led them into a storm. The waves were so fierce that they were “breaking the boat so that the boat was already filling” (v. 37). “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” In other words, “Why did you disrupt our comfort and bring us into this deadly
storm? Why don’t you care about us? Why are you not listening to us groan? Why don’t you care about how fearful this situation is? Why don’t you care about our lives? We’re dying; we thought you loved us.”

We love comfort, not the raging storms. It seems God is leading us into the crisis to make matters more confusing. There’s no question, the disciples were downcast. Jesus wakes, calms the storm, and then has a why question of his own: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus answers their “why” with a “why.” Jesus answers our “why” with his own: Why don’t we trust him? Why don’t we put our hope in him no matter what? Why fix our eyes on the storm rather than the storm stopper?

They had faith in Jesus; they didn’t have the faith of Jesus.

If they had the faith of Jesus, they could be sleeping through the storm. It is a blessing when Jesus calms the storm. It is a more incredible blessing when we have faith during the storm. I want to have hope and place my full faith in Jesus in my greatest times of despair, not just when waves are stilled.

What Cures the Downcast Heart?

Imagine being hopeful, faith-filled, and restful even when everything around you suggests you should be downcast. Imagine being immovable in your hope, steadfast in your confidence. Don’t you want to have faith under fire, hope in seemingly hopeless situations, and a joy unspeakable when all indications suggest you should be downcast? The remedy for a downcast heart is hope.
Romans 8:25: “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” The word “patience” is elsewhere translated “perseverance.” The Greek word here is derived from two words, “remaining” and “behind.” When we don’t see what we are hoping for, we remain behind. 

When all others have given up, when everything looks bleak, we remain steadfast, standing on the hope of God’s presence and promises.

The next verse tells us how we can remain when most would have left: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (v. 26). We see how to go on when we can’t go on. The Spirit helps us when we are too weak to hope, it doesn’t say he helps us out of our weakness, it says he helps us in our weakness. The Spirit doesn’t wait until we get our emotions straightened out, he comes even in our weakness and hopelessness and provides us the help to become hope-filled.

Paul continues this promising edification: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). The God of hope fills you with his hope, bringing along with it “all joy and peace”—not just some, but all that you need to rise above the storms. Colossians 1:4-5: “Since we have heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope…” Your faith and love are because of your hope. Hope is the forerunner to faith and love.

Goals, Pathways, and Agency

Three things are needed to have real hope: goals, pathways, and agency.

1. Goals. First, we need an honest dive into the turmoil that causes the soul to be downcast. If we try to pretend it’s not there, we will never find hope. Second, we move on to a clear vision of a preferred future. Hope stirs the heart to begin to believe a better future is possible, whether that future sees a changed circumstance or a changed heart that can endure the storm until it passes. Chan Hellman’s insight on hope is encouraging: “At the heart of change is our ability to understand the way things are right now in our lives... and that we can begin to imagine the way things could be. This is where hope is born.” Without a longing, a hope, a desire, a want, there can be no fulfillment. God loves to fulfill all his promises. Many believers are afraid of their wants. They think anything they want is of the flesh. Yet, how many times in Scripture did Jesus ask the sick, the poor, and the brokenhearted, “What do you want?” (Mark 10:51). This is called “want power.”

2. Pathways. Hope for a preferred future is essential when downcast. But that alone isn’t enough. We must ask God to help us develop a pathway toward the hope in our hearts. We need direction in moving forward toward overcoming and finding our 
heart’s desire. To want without a way is a wish. We need a plan. In Scripture, this plan can be very clear and have orderly steps, such as when Solomon was given a precise plan to build the temple. This may be God telling us to go to marriage counseling or, when overwhelmed with debt, create a budget and seek a different job. When downcast, take time to be still before the Lord and let him speak to you. In the Old Testament, when Israel was faced with overwhelming enemies, God gave them a plan: wait, be still, I will bring you victory.

There is still a plan: pray, trust, and wait. 

God often gives this plan when any human activity would fall short of accomplishing the desired ends. Yet, it is still a pathway: prayer, fasting, and waiting. This is called “way power.”

3. Agency. Agency can initiate actionable plans. It is good to desire what is good, but desire requires a plan, and a plan requires action upon those plans. The church at Ephesus had lost its first love, so Jesus gave them an actionable plan: repent, go back to doing the work you had been doing. Their agency was to have their energies employed to engage in repentance and renewal. They could not just want to renew or have a good plan; they had to act. This is often the most difficult when we are downcast. In Psalm 42, David, when dejected, reenergized his hope by remembering what was good, pure, meaningful, and joyful about his life that was now missing. As he mused over what was missing, the remembering, the feeling, the imagining that it could be again, was the birthplace of a new wave of hope. This hope can enable you to start planning and have new energies to act. In Corinth, the apostle writes to ignite agency. They had a pathway, deciding to give to those suffering in poverty in Jerusalem, but they had not fully enacted the plan: “So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it…” (2 Corinthians 8:11).

Restoring Hope: Want, Way, and Will

When we are overwhelmed, downcast, and in turmoil, Satan’s plan is to cause us to lose hope. Fear, anxiety, and regretful thoughts drain willpower. 

The Holy Spirit is more than willing to give us fresh want power, way power, and will power. In this way, we are not frozen in despair, sidelined in hopelessness or duped into believing the situation is unanswerable. We are not sitting idle because we think there is no way out. Instead, God gives us a new desire, and hope arises. Then, a plan comes and we see a way of escape. He gives us fresh energies to act in obedience with a fresh and zealous spirit. This is “will power.” Want, Way, and Will are three elements that God puts in our heart to restore hope.
 

Jeremiah puts the capstone on hope as the antidote to a downcast heart: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Your future is determined by your hope, given by the Spirit. Hope is God’s plan for you! Amen. ◼︎