Defiant Hope: When Praise Rises From the Rubble

What if hope isn’t something you wait for in the future…
 What if hope is something you stand in right now?

In this episode of Unrelated Sisters: Truth & Grace Conversation, we talk about defiant hope — the kind of hope that doesn’t deny pain, but refuses to let pain have the final word. The hope that rises from the rubble, lifts its hands anyway, and praises God right where it is.

This is not about pretending things don’t hurt.
 This is about trusting God in the middle of the hurt.

If you’re walking through loss, disappointment, waiting, or uncertainty — this episode is for you. You’ll be reminded that biblical hope is not passive optimism, but active faith rooted in God’s character, not your circumstances.

Bible Verses Referenced

• Romans 5:3–5 — “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
• Habakkuk 3:17–19 — Praise when the fig tree doesn’t bloom.
• Psalm 34:19 — “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
• Hebrews 11:1 — Faith as confident assurance.
• Isaiah 61:3 — Beauty for ashes.

Encouragement for the Listener

Sister, if you’re standing in the rubble —
 God is not absent.
 Your praise is not wasted.
 And your hope is not foolish.

Defiant hope says:
 “This hurts — but God is still good.”
“I don’t see the outcome — but I trust the One who does.”
“I will praise Him here, not just when I get there.”

You don’t have to have answers.
 You don’t have to feel strong.
 You just have to keep showing up.

Hope isn’t denial.
 Hope is resistance.

Prayer for the Listener

Lord,
 For the woman listening who feels tired, discouraged, or worn down — we ask You to meet her right where she is.

When life feels broken and uncertain, help her lift her eyes to You.
 Give her defiant hope — not because circumstances are easy, but because You are faithful.

Teach her to praise You in the rubble.
 Strengthen her when she feels weak.
 Remind her that You are near, You are working, and You are not finished.

Turn ashes into beauty.
 Turn pain into purpose.
 Turn waiting into worship.

We trust You, Lord — even here.
 In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you and praise you and give you all the glory. Uh here we are again, fixing to do another episode, and um it's been a hard few weeks. Uh I wrote this episode at the first of the year, and I've really had a hard time hearing you ever since I've wrote this episode. So I believe I should have done this episode two weeks ago. Um, I just didn't feel like it was ready. I didn't feel like I was ready. Um, but that's that defiant hope, isn't it? Where we forget to listen. So, Lord Jesus, please give me the strength to share this in the way that you want it to be shared. Please give our listeners the ears to hear it, the open heart to understand it, Lord Jesus, and the mouth and the mind to use it. We praise you and we give you all the glory for this. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, welcome back to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. And as I just mentioned in the prayer, today's episode is called Defiant Hope when Praise Raises from the Rebels. Uh, I wrote this at the beginning of the year, at the first of the year. Um, and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, I don't think. I couldn't wrap my heart around it. Um, but I've had a hard time hearing God ever since I wrote this. So um life has definitely been life in, just like I said on the last episode, you know, weather in Georgia causes everything to come to an halt. Um, people, you know, hunker down like they're gonna be stuck in their homes for months on end, uh, really when it was just one day. And so life, you know, work's been really hard, really rough, a lot going on. Um, and then just trying to start a new year, trying to end the year on a high note, and then start a new year. Um not behind. So um, just like I said, I've had a hard time hearing God the last few the last few weeks, um, hearing his voice, but I also hadn't been chastening. I haven't been reading my Bible, I haven't been praying to him every day like I should be. Um, and and I know that you know it's no different than me wanting my child to call me, you know, a couple times a week. Um, but I don't call him either, right? So um just because I want something doesn't mean it happens. It takes two people or it takes two parties to be involved to make it. And the same thing is with the same thing with Jesus. I truly believe that that it takes it takes two of you. It takes you and him, you know. You gotta read your Bible and and and spend time with him, and um, and then he'll be there. So let's get started. Um, so what do you do when the future doesn't look like what you prayed for? Right? I mean, we pray for things or we dream about things or we see things, you know, and we think this is where we're headed, but that doesn't mean that's always where we're headed, right? Um, I can guarantee you that um I have done some 360s uh on this journey. I have definitely done some 180s. Um, I've turned left, I've turned right, I've gone up when I should have gone down, I've gone down when I should have gone up. Like it's been it's been definitely been, you know, been been an adventure. But what do you do when you're standing in the rubble of what was, and heaven feels so quiet? Like, what do you do? You know, because most of us were taught that hope looks like optimism, that hope means things are going to turn around quickly. That hope is standing in the rain saying, God, where are you? But what if biblical hope looks different? What if it does? Have you ever thought about it? I sure haven't until I started this. Uh, what if hope isn't pretending it doesn't hurt, but praising God right where it hurts? What about it? What do you think? Um, what if hope isn't asking God, where are you, God, but declaring, I know who you are, God, and I trust you are here. You want me to repeat that? I think I should. What if hope isn't asking, where are you, God, but declaring, I know who you are, God, and I trust you are here. Tonight we're going to talk about two cons of hope. I want to talk about hope for the future, which everybody has, but also want to talk about defiant in the presence. Hope as defiant in the presence. And I believe some of us walked into this room needing permission to stop pretending we're okay and start standing in wholly defiant hope. You know, we I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, everything's fine, nothing's on fire. Uh, we crack a joke at work a lot about being on being in the middle of a dumpster fire, and um, sometimes that's what life feels like. You know, if you're standing in the rubble, relational, emotional, spiritual, every day. This message, it might be for you. You don't have to deny the pain, you just need to know who is standing with you. So let's talk about what hope actually is. Biblical hope is not optimism, it's not denial, it's not positive thinking, it's not pretending things don't hurt. Biblical hope is confident expectations rooted in God's character, not the circumstance that we live in. Biblical hope is confident expectations rooted in God's character, not circumstances. Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So hope doesn't need proof, it doesn't wait for evidence, and it's anchored in who God is, not what God does next. So what does that mean? It's anchored in God's and who God is, in the promises that he give us, in the in the words that he left in the Bible. Romans thir 15, 13 says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. Notice it doesn't say the God of answers, it says the God of hope. And here's God's promise that you need to hear tonight in Numbers 23:19. God is not a man that he should lie. That means he promises, his promises don't collapse when your circumstances do, and his faithfulness doesn't change when your seasons do. Hope doesn't require certainty, it requires trust in a promise keeping God. You have to trust that God's gonna keep his promises. God has kept every promise he has ever given me, every promise that he has showed me in the Bible, every promise that he has promised me, everything he has given to me, everything I've asked for, everything that I've cried over, God has given to me. Does it look exactly the way I thought it was gonna look? No, and we've talked about that, right? There was no fireworks going off in the sky, there was no, you know, ho moment. There was just there, you know. So let's talk about some hope for the future. You know, uh this kind of hope, most of us understand, right? We all know what hope is, right? We we we have hope. Hope is to look forward, you know. It believes God will move, it trusts that pain won't last forever. Jeremiah spoke this kind of hope to Israel, right? And 29 Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to give you a future and a hope. That was spoken to people in exile. What did they think? You know, they were displaced, they were discouraged, they were disappointed. You know, they were standing in the rain asking God, where are you? God didn't say you won't be here long. He just said, Even here I have a plan. Even here I have a plan. You know, Abraham lived in this kind of hope. Uh, Romans 4.18, against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. The evidence seemed impossible. God said promise, and Abraham chose promise. In limitations 3, 31 through 32, it reminds us for no one is cast off by the Lord forever. Here's the promise. Does it do y'all know the promise? Your future is not canceled because your presence is painful. Do y'all need to hear that again? One more time. Your future is not canceled because your presence is painful. It's okay to hope forward, it truly is. It's okay to look, be positive about tomorrow. Uh, God invites you to believe again, right? It's okay to be hopeful, it's okay if your child is sick and you hope for the for the best. It's okay that you know it's okay, it's okay to hope. It really is. But sometimes when we are standing in it, we need defiant hope. In the middle of a storm, you need defiant hope. Because optimistic hope isn't gonna bring you out of the storm, it's not gonna bring you out of the ashes, it's not gonna bring you out of where you are. So let's let's talk about defiant hope. Defiant hope says, I will praise God where I am, I will trust God where I am. I do not understand, but I refuse to be in despair. Did y'all understand that? Did y'all hear that? Did y'all comprehend what I just said? Defiant hope says, I will praise God where I am, I will trust God right now. I don't understand, but I refuse to despair. This is not passive hope, this is resistant hope. This is a resistant faith. Limitations 3 shows us this perfectly. Jeremiah is standing in devastation. Jerusalem is destroyed, everything familiar is gone, and he says, My soul is downcast within me, yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. He didn't deny the pain, he didn't rush past the grief, he just remembered truth in the middle of the sorrow, and that sounds hard, it really does, when you're when you everything around you is falling apart. It's much easier to ask God, where are you, than it is to praise him where you stand, but how much more powerful would our moment be if we had to find hope? And Huckubah lived it, you know. Hucaba 3, 17 through 18 thought the fig tree does not bud, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Nothing changed, but his posture did. Paul and Sylvia lived it in Acts 16, 25. About midnight, Paul and Sylvia were praying and singing hymns to God. They weren't praising to get out, they were praising while still being chained. They were praising in the moment. You know, David lived it in Psalms 31, 34, 1. I will bless the Lord at all times. Defiant hope doesn't deny the storm, it dances in the rain because God is still God. And here is God's promise. Isaiah 43, 2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. God never promised we wouldn't walk through it, He just promised we wouldn't walk alone. You know, there's uh the parable of the of the of the men in the fire, and there's the third one standing, and it's always him, and they come out without a burn, you know, and that's that's always been very powerful to me. So there was a lot of you know, let's talk about a woman of defiant hope. And Mary didn't say yes because she had clarity, she said yes and risk. You know, Mary was a teenager, she was pregnant, she was unmarried, a lot of people didn't understand what was going on, and still she said, Let's be unto me according to your words. That's straight defiant hope. Abraham hoped with logic, said stop. Jesus molded defiant hope on the cross, the darkest moment in history, and yet the gate and yet the greatest victory. What looked like defeat was redemption unfolding. Defiant hope believes resurrection is coming, even when Friday feels endless. So, how do we live out defiant hope? So, how do we depract how do we practice defiant hope? We praise before we relieve, declare truth over feelings, worship even when prayer feels unanswered, and speak God's promise out loud. Psalms 42, 11 says, Why, my soul, are you downcast? Put your hope in God. Nehemiah 8 10 reminds us the joy of the Lord is your strength. Joy isn't the absence of pain, it's the presence of God in it. Joy isn't the absence of pain, it's the presence of God in it. When you find true joy, that doesn't mean that life is perfect, that doesn't mean that you don't have pain, that doesn't mean that you don't feel sadness or or hopelessness or loneliness. It just means that God is in it, and you don't lose your joy in the process. So hear me. Defiant hope is not loud, it's not flashy, it doesn't always post well. Sometimes defiant hope looks like just getting out of the bed, right? If you're depressed, if you're sad, if you're having a hard time, just get up, just get out of the bed, just put on some clothes, get out of your pajamas, praying through the tears. You know, when when a doctor gives you something that you were hoping for better, or when when you know, when your spout, when you're arguing, or when you're just pray through your hope, pray through your tears. Trust in God when you don't even understand him. I don't understand a lot, and I'm very defiant and not in hope, right? But I'm working on it. I'm working on trusting whatever he says when he says it and moving right along with it, and praising him in the rubble. You have to praise him, you have to thank him. Thank him where you are. There's always some kind of silver lining on the cloud. Hope doesn't mean the pain isn't real, and hope means God is still faithful. Hope for the future says God will, and defiant hope says God is. But both are very holy. You know, both are very much true. And it's where you are to decide what kind of hope you need. You know, being raised, hope was hope, right? You hoped for a better future, you hoped for a better life, you hoped for a better this or a better that. But having him bring me out of the ashes is give me a defiant hope of where he is. Because God is, he is your hope. You know, uh, as we as we bring this one to an end, I hope everyone understands that it's okay to have hope for the future, and that God will, he will give you that hope for the future, but you also have to have defiant hope because God is, God is good, Lord Jesus. We thank you, not because life is easy, but because you are faithful for every woman and man standing in rubble tonight. Teach us how to praise you where we are, teach us how to know where we are, teach us to be okay with where we are, to praise you and then to move forward with you. Anchor our hope not in outcomes, but in your promises. When circumstance screams otherwise, remind us that you are still God and that you are still good. We choose defiant hope, not because we are strong, but because you are strong. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may not be standing in the rubble today, but rubble is not the end of the story. It is not, it is often the foundation God builds on. If all you can do tonight is whisper praise through tears, heaven hears it loudly. Stand in hope, stand in truth, stand in defiant faith because God is still God and He is standing with you. If you enjoyed this episode tonight, please share it. Please like us, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Please help grow our ministry. There's women out there that need to hear this stuff, this testimony tonight, that needs to hear this podcast tonight. Please share it. And we love you until next week. Stay in defiant hope.