DEVOTION//Respair

Do you need a time of respair?

What is respair?

Respair is the opposite of despair.

Despair is the complete loss of hope. It describes a feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well. In these days of covid-uncertainty, the economic threats of inflation, and disrepectful communication, despair looms large.

Though respair is an obsolete word today, 500 years ago, respair was ready to express the opposite of despair. Despair comes to  English from two Latin words, de (without) and sperare (to hope). The re in respair brings the idea of something happening again, as in our words return, reinvestigate, and remanufacture. In respair, what is happening again is sperare, hope.

God promises respair

Respair is to have hope again, especially after a period of hopelessness or despair.

Doesn't the Bible urge us toward the respair, the hope that springs up in the face of despair and overpowers its feelings of impending and inescapable doom? Think of Psalm 42:1,5:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God…. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope (respair) in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Jesus guarantees respair

Respair -- hope in the face of hopelessness -- is ours because Jesus is ours. (Remember how 1 Timothy 1:1 calls Jesus our hope?)

And because Jesus, our hope, has made us the children of his Father, we are guaranteed that the God of hope [will] fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). 

Whatever is driving you toward despair, Jesus-won respair offers triumph over it. Respair is waiting for you at Jesus' Good Friday cross and Easter tomb.

15 Days of Prayer begins on February 1. Learn more here.