In your opinion, define despair?

[Biblelove13]

I read on a site that despair was defined as believing you are inadequate to receive salvation or that your sins are too great to be forgiven. Ok, that seems right to me, but then it said something like “people who fall into this hate God.” I beg to differ, I fall/fell into despair frequently, and I don’t hate God. My terrible actions certainly show otherwise, but I don’t. I think despair is more about hating yourself for sinning and hating your sins. What’s wrong with feeling you don’t deserve Grace? I don’t think there’s anyone alive who can truly say they are without sin, and deserve His kingdom. What’s your opinion, do you think the site is correct? I

 

[followingtheway]

An example of “despair” in the sense they’re talking about is, for example someone who believes their sins are too great and thinks"Jesus could never forgive me" and therefore the person stops making an effort to come to Him, therefore dying of unforgiven sins.

 

[Daizies]

I find it very confusing because when I think of despair, I think of emotional despair. I had read on an examination of conscience about despair, and it made no sense to me, and I kept forgetting to ask a priest about it.

This:

An example of “despair” in the sense they’re talking about is, for example someone who believes their sins are too great and thinks"Jesus could never forgive me" and therefore the person stops making an effort to come to Him, therefore dying of unforgiven sins.

helps to clarify it for me. Thanks

 

[AlTheCollegeGal]

I read on a site that despair was defined as believing you are inadequate to receive salvation or that your sins are too great to be forgiven. Ok, that seems right to me, but then it said something like “people who fall into this hate God.” I beg to differ, I fall/fell into despair frequently, and I don’t hate God. My terrible actions certainly show otherwise, but I don’t. I think despair is more about hating yourself for sinning and hating your sins. What’s wrong with feeling you don’t deserve Grace? I don’t think there’s anyone alive who can truly say they are without sin, and deserve His kingdom. What’s your opinion, do you think the site is correct? I

I think that this definition is incorrect as well. Simply put, I believe despair is the relinquishing of any vestige of hope. Despair is a quality in which bitter resignation to the inevitable is imminent and happiness is absent.

 

[ChibiViolet]

I think that this definition is incorrect as well. Simply put, I believe despair is the relinquishing of any vestige of hope. Despair is a quality in which bitter resignation to the inevitable is imminent and happiness is absent.

That definition is correct. You have described another kind of despair. There’s more than one kind.

 

[LegoGE1947]

That definition is correct. You have described another kind of despair. There’s more than one kind.

I have always equated despair as a lack of hope for anything to go well. Similar to the song they used to sing on the TV show “Hee Haw” “Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep dark depression, pain and misery. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me!”

 

[Delaine75]

To me, despair is feeling that things are so bad and overwhelming that God cannot possibly help you through them.

 

[fred_conty]

Despair is to give up trying.
Extreme discouragement.

This could apply to buisness, school, family, golf, or any other activity including holiness and life itself.

Top of the list as the devil’s tactic on us. Especially prayer.

Just a thought.

 

[thistle]

I read on a site that despair was defined as believing you are inadequate to receive salvation or that your sins are too great to be forgiven. Ok, that seems right to me, but then it said something like “people who fall into this hate God.” I beg to differ, I fall/fell into despair frequently, and I don’t hate God. My terrible actions certainly show otherwise, but I don’t. I think despair is more about hating yourself for sinning and hating your sins. What’s wrong with feeling you don’t deserve Grace? I don’t think there’s anyone alive who can truly say they are without sin, and deserve His kingdom. What’s your opinion, do you think the site is correct? I

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

DESPAIR. The sin by which a person gives up all hope of salvation or of the means necessary to reach heaven. It is therefore not mere anxiety about the future or fear that one may be lost. It is rather a deliberate yielding to the idea that human nature cannot co-operate with God’s grace, or that the despairing person is too wicked to be saved, or that God has cast one away. It is a grave crime against God’s goodness. Experience also shows that a tendency to despair can seriously injure one’s physical and mental health, and ironically can lead to all kinds of sinful indulgence. (Etym. Latin de, the opposite of + sperare, to hope: desperatio, hopelessness, despair.)