Overcoming Challenging Times

Isolation with too much social media can amplify the challenges in our lives. We should view these challenges as a means to display God’s power and glory. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. It is the result of living in a broken world. Making sense of it will drive you crazy. But there is one part that has to make sense. We want to know why when it happens to us.

Psalm 139:15-16, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

Darkness is relative. The darkness in our lives is relative to the life He has given us. Some of us will never experience what it feels like not to know when we might eat again. Some of us may cruise through life without ever losing someone without whom we cannot exist. Some of us will not fight addiction or fear or anxiety. But we will all drop into darkness at some point. The depth of that darkness is directly proportional to the degree that we experience hope.

Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,”

I have lived through very dark days. My rock is knowing Christ was with me every step of the way. My thorn was uncertainty. I know that my life has meaning. I understand that each morning when my eyes first open, I have a purpose. I know that the God of the universe, the most amazing being ever to exist, loves me. But when the path ahead of me is unclear, I fear. I do not fear the ending; I fear the journey.

Psalm 71:5-6, “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you, I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.”

Challenges are God’s way of showing just how much He cares. It is in the dark times His light shines brightest. It is when we cannot help ourselves, that He demonstrates why we should rely on Him and why we should always have hope. The journey is sometimes difficult, the path steep and narrow. There may be times when we don’t think we are up to the task and prefer to quit. But it is at that moment, the darkest of all moments when we should take God’s hand and rise.

1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

He is always with us. He wrote your story before you came into existence. He is the author of your life. Your life is not pulp fiction; it is an eternal biographical classic. Every story has to have moments when it seems all is lost. It is in these moments we see the glory of the author as He pens the impossible, comes from behind, overwhelming all odds rescue. That is our rescue, yours and mine.

Isaiah 46:10, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'”

Tough times will come. They will try men’s souls. If we let them become only tough times, we have wasted everything. If we use these tough times to experience the glory of our maker, we have chosen life over death. He will use us to demonstrate His power to the world.

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

God loves you, unconditionally. He will fight for you even when you don’t have the strength to fight for yourself. He created you for great things. We know the ending, do not fear the journey.

Psalm 33:11, “The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”