Many times families feel desperate and hopeless. I empathize with what they are muddling through when a loved one identifies as a homosexual. Hopelessness appears to be swallowing them up in their despair. Joy and Rob felt that way. They were barely able to sleep at night after their daughter declared she was “gay.”

Joy asked me, “Is there hope?” I replied, “Oh yes!” We talked about one of the tools Satan uses against family members when the earthquake of a loved one living out of the will of God rocks their world. Satan uses alienation to make us feel as if no really understands or is willing to offer godly support when our life is split at its core. If Rob and Joy continue to feel alienated, they will harm themselves even more by closing themselves off to the support and friendship that other people, and organizations such as Living Stones, can provide.

The tremors of this emotional earthquake sometimes create a feeling of abandonment in family members. I suppose it’s similar to what Job experienced when a series of catastrophes upended his life. Are you familiar with his story in the Old Testament?  Overcome with sorrow and covered with sores, Job pleaded with a seemingly apathetic God for answers and relief. Have you been in that place?

Family members often feel like Job felt. They experience powerlessness as they realize just how little control we human beings have over our life and our loved one’s life. I’m sure Job wouldn’t have volunteered to have his family almost instantly taken from him or to endure a sickness that seemed beyond anyone’s ability to heal.

But we serve a God who can triumph over our limitations, a God who dispels the doom and fear that Rob and Joy, and many of us, face. In Isaiah 41:10–13, God provides this encouragement: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The apostle Paul reminds us that, no matter what our circumstances are, we can give “thanks to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). We can gain strength by remembering that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Rob and Joy made a commitment to each other that they would guard their hearts from walking in the hopelessness they felt prior to our conversation. What will you choose to do?