Trusting God in the tough times

Everyone has heard the phrase, “Life isn’t easy.”

I think that there isn’t a single person on earth that would argue with you when you said that.

It doesn’t matter your age, financial status, your race, your political view, life can be difficult.

There is nothing that we can do to avoid tough times. Try your best to plan ahead, try to avoid them or try to stay one step ahead of them and they will find you regardless.

A normal question for everyone to ask during tough times is why are they happening and the next question is probably what can I do to make them stop?

As Christians, we realize that just because we give our life in surrender to Jesus difficult times are always going to happen. We are not exempt from tough times and the Lord never promised that we would be.

There is going to be pain, heartache, loss but we believe that there is a plan and purpose for those things in our life.

The key is being patient enough and having the strength to see our way through the storm and the difficulty of the moment to find what the Lord has waiting for us on the other side.

And before we go any further, let me just tell you how difficult that truly is.

If you find yourself oftentimes not being able to look past the current pain and difficulty in your life, then you are not alone. We have all been there, done that and will struggle with it again in the future.

The truth of the matter is that God has a different way that He wants us to handle and deal with tough times.

His way is the best way and the way that we can truly grow and take advantage of tough times and use them to our advantage and as an opportunity to grow and become the person that He wants us to become.

One thing to remember is that when tough times happen in your life (and they will) you are NEVER alone.

Even if you are in the middle of a storm in your life and you feel like that you have no one you can talk to or no one that cares, you have Jesus!!!

He loves you and He cares about you and your situation and He will never ever leave your side. That’s a promise.

Sometimes you may call out to God and pray for Him to help you and take away your pain or suffering and you may not get an answer in the timing you want or the answer might not even be what you want, but He is always there!!! And that doesn’t mean that He isn’t listening because He is.

He will never leave us or forsake us. He promises that to us and will never change.

One of the things that I have learned recently in my life is that we go through pain and tough times so that God can change us.

We may not realize it at the time, but God is trying to purify us and get us to the point that we are putting Him first.

We oftentimes unfortunately are not able to do that on our own so God takes the situation into His hands and allows us to see things that are standing between us and HIM.

As difficult as it might seem in the moment, those times can be some of parts of our life where we experience the most growth. Growth that we wouldn’t have done in the first place if the pain and suffering hadn’t been present in our life.

But when it first happens that can be the last thing we truly want to see.

We ask God, “Why did you take this from me?

“Why did you do this?”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen Lord”

It takes some growth and time to be able to tell God, “I’m not sure what you are doing in my life, but I know you have a plan and I trust you through the storm”

It isn’t easy to say Lord even though I am in pain I won’t focus on the pain and uncertainty but rather focus on you.

If it was easy every single person would do it.

As much as we might strive to be like the apostle Paul, who praised God for his captivity and praised God for his suffering and the thorn in his side, it seems a little more difficult to do that in 2021.

That is something that we should all strive for.

But let me tell you right now, for people in the world that don’t believe in Jesus and those that aren’t Christians, if they hear you thanking God for your struggles, thanking him for the tough times in your life, and praising Him for the lessons that He is teaching you in the pain and suffering they won’t quite understand.

And quite frankly you may not understand it as well, but that’s what we have to do.

That is where the trust and faith come in.

If we try to fix the tough times by ourself, or get out of the tough times we can’t. We truly have very little control over our life and the way things turn out.

The sooner we realize that the better.

Just remember that difficult times in life truly reveal and test our faith and allow it to grow the most. It is in such times in life that we feel inadequate and defeated that we truly can gain our greatest strength.

The key is that the strength in difficult times does not come from ourselves but rather Jesus Christ.

It is in those times of struggle when we truly surrender and lean on HIM and HIM alone that we will find our refuge.

It is in those times of pain and suffering that we realize that we are truly never alone and the grace and peace provided by Jesus Christ is all we truly need.

Oftentimes it takes pain and suffering and tough times for us to realize what God truly means to us, what He should mean to us and that above all else, the most important thing in our life is an intimate relationship with HIM.

He wants all of us in the good times, the tough times and every step along the way!!!

So next time you face a tough time or difficult situation in your life, thank Him for it, tell HIM you don’t know why you are going through it but you thank HIM for that lesson and blessing that is about to be revealed in your life!!!

As difficult as that may sound, if we try that just imagine how much more manageable the tough times are because we realize that we aren’t walking alone and the Lord has a lesson for us to learn if we are only willing to be patient and wait on it on the other side of the storm!!!

Trust the Lord and Trust Him with the outcome!!! It’s the only way to get through the tough times of life!!!