How Danny Gokey Found Hope After Wife’s Death: ‘I’ve Seen God in My Life’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Danny Gokey recently sat down with Kirk Cameron to talk about hope and how he was able to continue on after the tragic death of his wife.
“When you walk through difficult times and hope is like a lifesaver to you, it tends to naturally bubble up out of you,” Gokey said. “What’s in us comes out of us.”
“I’ve seen God move in my life, I’ve seen God help me pull through significant losses and through different seasons of anxiety and depression and everything that brought me out was always hope. When people lose hope, they lose their reason to live,” he continued.
Gokey’s hope comes from his strong background in faith. He was drawn to the father at a young age and grew up in the church. Staying in the word and understanding the word has allowed him to stay strong in his faith through the ups and downs in his life.
The most helpful part of Gokey’s roots in faith is the understanding of God’s character. Knowing that God is loving allows him to stick to the bible’s teachings even when it is hard and he doesn’t understand why God wants things a particular way.
“When you don’t understand God, still stay on God’s side and try to stick with him to the end,” Gokey said.
Gokey’s faith in God was tested when he lost his wife to a heart condition. Throughout her struggle, he was praying for healing and deliverance, and when she passed, Gokey was faced with trusting God that her death was good despite the pain he felt.
Following his wife’s death, Gokey found healing through Christ. God did not allow his questions to go unanswered. Gokey came out of the experience stronger in his faith and with a better understanding of God’s goodness.
Just after his wife passed, Gokey tried out for American Idol, something his wife had been encouraging him to do. As he advanced through round after round, his perspective began to expand. He had a new reason to keep moving forward and realized that God would use his story to help others.
Movieguide® previously reported:
“I believe there is something musically and inspirationally for everyone on this album – it’s full of hope and encouragement that I think we can all use right now,” Danny Gokey told The Christian Beat of his 12-track album.
Gokey also revealed that every song he releases begins with prayer.
“For me, it starts with a prayer,” Gokey told The Christian Post. “I do this every record. And I feel like … as I keep growing, [God’s] downloading more. I pray, ‘Lord, You’re the greatest lyricist of all time. I want to say what You’re saying. I want to speak what You’re speaking.’
“By faith, I get ready to receive. I don’t hear audible voices. I just, by faith, receive that God’s going to speak and write through me, and I start paying attention,” Gokey added.
Gokey said that his ultimate goal is to inspire Christian to stand firm in their faith, a message conveyed in his favorite song from the album with the same title, “Jesus People.”
“We need Jesus people to let it be known. We need Jesus people to start walking in the freedom that’s been paid for and walking in the knowledge of the truth because there’s a broken world. And really, we should start doing more with our hands and feet than our mouth,” Gokey said. “Most people have heard about Jesus in our world. Our country was founded upon Christ and Christian values. The thing is, there’s a cognitive dissonance. They hear Christianity, and they’re seeing Christianity. It just looks like the world. It looks like everyone else except that you just slap a label on yourself.
“People who not just talk about it, but live it sacrificially, they’re the ones that grab people’s attention. So we need Jesus people to do that,” he added.
