Faith In Difficult Times

by Teal Graham

​We have been faced with difficult situations in our lives. It could be a situation of our own making or a situation caused by malicious actions of another person that wanted to cause us harm. Some of us may have problems that may seem small and can be easily remedied, others not so much. Whatever the situation just about all of us have experienced hard times

During the rougher times of our lives people may need some help but not everyone is apt at asking for it. Some find it very difficult to do so for one reason or another. So they find themselves drawing inward emotionally. If people are fortunate to have others around them that can see they are troubled they may offer an extension of help in some form.

However, when no solution is to be found it can become difficult to wait out the circumstances, to wait for an answer. During these moments people may find themselves struggling and may look for an easy, but wrong, solution to their problems. While this may yield results that solved their problems, they usually come at a price that will be more costly and cause more pain down the road.

Christians typically run to God immediately when they have a problem because He is the answer, but they are usually impatient. Although taking our troubles to the Lord is the right thing to do we often  lack the patience to wait for a solution from the Lord. God wants us to continue to go on with our lives but we also need to understand that He is the ultimate solution in our difficult times and hardships. 

Sometimes our problems can be so consuming that we allow ourselves to forget to ask for help from our Heavenly Father.  We focus on trying to fix it ourselves excluding God altogether, which is a mistake. While we are on the topic of mistakes let's understand God is not in the business of making mistakes. He is a God with a plan and purpose for the good of all His creations good and bad. 

So even when troubles occur through no fault of our own, that has a person of faith desperately seeking God's help and perhaps questioning why this is happening, it's important to remember that even in these very difficult times we as Christians have the ability to endure.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. We only get stronger in faith through our hardships and when our endurance is fully developed, we will be perfect and complete, needing nothing but our faith.
Embracing our struggles that come with living is challenging but we are equipped to do it.

The best part is we are never alone. God is always with us,  so spend time in prayer and talk to God. Ask the Holy Spirit for help during weakness. Don't spend that time with God complaining about your situation but ask for strength to endure troubling times because you know God will be with you in the end.

Having faith is not just about hoping that God will end your suffering, but that He can end your suffering. It also may be that your suffering may not end because it is part of another plan that God has for you that will lead you to a greater path. Faith is believing that no matter what happens, God is in control and he is watching over you. 

Faith is a hard thing. The best of us will have weak moments of faith because life will test us. Not just once but through our lives. Easy, less painful ways are usually laid out before us to try our faith but the path of the Lord is often a difficult one that few choose. 

This is why faith in God is the cornerstone of Christian belief because you can not truly serve God if you do not have faith in God. We have to believe that God is with us even at the lowest points in our lives and in the end he will always take care of us.