There will be times in all of our lives when life doesn’t make sense. It may be because of sickness or tragedy, the loss of a relationship, or watching a child walk away from the Lord. It may be because of someone else’s sin or just our circumstances, but there are times when life is hard. Maybe you’re going through one of those times right now.

Whatever your difficult circumstances or mine, how should we respond? And if we’re doing well right now, what can we do to be ready when challenging times come?

Today’s Readings:

Job 9 & 10
Psalm 93.1-5
Proverbs 22.22-23
Romans 9.16-33

3 Ways to Stay Strong When Life Is Hard

Job 9 & 10:

Not Equals

In these two chapters of Job, our friend Job responds to his friend Bildad. If you know the story, after Job had suffered horrible losses, several of his friends had come to comfort him. In the beginning, they did three things right. First of all, they showed up. Second, they grieved with him (Job 2.12). And third, they spend time with him (Job. 2.13). But then, they began to speak and offer their advice. The trouble was that their advice was based on wrong assumptions about God, especially that all suffering is the result of one’s own sin.

Job is confused because he holds to the same basic belief as his friends—that all troubles come as a direct result of one’s own sin. So, while he knows he’s not sinless, he struggles to understand how he deserves the degree of suffering he’s enduring. Maybe you have felt the same way.

But Job holds on to the truths he does understand. In Job 9.32 speaking of God, he says:

He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.

He understands that he and God are not equals, that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are far above our thoughts (Is. 55.8-9).

Understanding that truth helped Job and can help us accept things in our lives that we don’t understand. And there will be things this side of heaven that don’t seem fair, things for which God has a higher and a bigger purpose than we know.

Darkness & Depression

A pastor I know went through a dark depression years ago when his son walked away from the Lord. He said anything he had called depression before that time didn’t even come close. While he still believed the truths he had taught for many years, including the reality of God’s goodness and sovereignty, the darkness continued.

But he was able to hold on to one truth and it sustained him through that dark time. He saw himself like one of those cartoon characters who runs over a cliff and manages to grab onto one little branch. That branch was John 6.66-69:

⁶⁶ From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. ⁶⁷ Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”

⁶⁸ But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

In spite of his feelings to the contrary, he knew that Christ was who He said He was and there was nowhere else for him to go. So he held on and God brought him through. He was able to believe because he had filled his heart and mind with God’s Word long before. And Isaiah 55.11 says that God’s Word does not return void:

When Life Is Hard & Confusing for You

Are you going through a dark or difficult time? How are you responding? Could your responses be complicating, even worsening, your situation? I wrote more on that subject yesterday in “Could My Response to Someone’s Sin Cause Me More Suffering?”

And if things are going pretty well, what can you do to keep yourself strong in the Lord and able to handle whatever comes even when life is hard and confusing?

3 Ways to Stay Strong When Life Is Hard

• Use God’s Resources

Peter wrote this to people in the first century who were undergoing extreme hardships:

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire (2 Pet. 1.3-4 ESV).

Later Paul wrote:

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3.16-17 ESV).

And in Philippians:

⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4.6-7 ESV).

God has given us all the resources we need to live life in a fallen world. But we must partake of them. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit who lives in us and provides His divine power (2 Pet. 1.3). We need to fill our hearts and minds with His Word. It’s what equips us for every good work (2 Tim. 3.17) and enables us to fight spiritual battles (Eph. 6.17). And we need to turn to God in prayer when life is hard (Phil. 4.6).

• Hide the Word in Your Heart

This one piggybacks off the first one. But we must be purposeful about not just reading or hearing the Word but also memorizing key passages. Psalm 119 says:

It’s our sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6.17) and how Jesus responded to the temptations He faced (Lk. 4.1-13).

Jerry Bridges gives us a great illustration of how hiding the Word in our hearts enables us to respond rightly to the tests and trials of life. You can read more about his explanation and see his helpful diagram here and here.

• Obey God’s Commands

But knowing what God says and praying are not enough without obedience. Jesus said this in Matthew 7:

²⁴ Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it (Matt. 7.24-27 ESV).

Notice the rock is not just hearing the truth. It’s hearing and doing.

And the writer of Hebrews said:

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5.12-14).

The mature believer is discerning and wise because of constant practice in obeying God’s Word. And because she is mature, she will make decisions and respond to hardship in ways that are pleasing to the Lord, rather than complicating and worsening her suffering.

Ask Yourself

So, what are you filling your heart and mind with right now? Is it the bread of life that has the power to sustain you or is it something with no eternal value? If you’re primarily feeding on man’s wisdom, worthless entertainment, or the never-ending news cycle, what will you have to hold on to when you need it? Worse yet, are you meditating on some hurt done to you or some unfair circumstance?

Are you praying and relying on His strength and wisdom to sustain you? Are you a member of a solid, New Testament church and attending regularly? And are you obeying God and responding in ways that are pleasing to Him when you face difficulties?

If not, go to God. Ask for His forgiveness and help. And if you have sinned against anyone else in the process, go to them and seek their forgiveness, as well. Then make a commitment to obey and honor God no matter what. When we do, we can experience peace and joy in spite of our circumstances, peace and joy that the world can never know.

Today’s Other Readings:

Psalm 93.1-5:

God’s Word is Truth

Verse 5a says, “Your testimonies are very sure …” Jesus said it this way, “Your Word is truth!” (Jn. 17.17). Think about that four-word statement. “Your Word is truth.” It is!

I sometimes hear people say, “Well, I just believe …,” followed by some theory they have about life and the way they think the universe should be run. They don’t understand that His Word is. It is. He is the Creator or, as Paul said in Romans 9, the Potter. He gets to make the rules.

It is the truth. It’s not up for debate. The Omniscient One, He who knows all things, declares only what is true. He is truth and He can declare nothing less. The psalmist says that God’s Word is “very sure.” You can bank on it, stand on it, and build your life on it. It is sure!

Proverbs 22.22-23:

Defender of the Poor and Needy

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.

It is true that those who are rich sometimes have the ability to exploit the poor. They have greater means when there is a dispute between them and can hire a better lawyer. They may determine whether a poor man keeps his job or hold something else over his head. But when they do, they do so at their own peril! Because God is ultimately the defender of those who cannot defend themselves! He is the best attorney you can have and the ultimate judge of all the affairs of men!

Romans 9.16-33:

He is the Potter

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? (vv. 20-21).

This sums up all of our reading today. The Apostle Paul said much the same thing as Job did when he asked the hypothetical question, “Who are you to reply against God?”

God is “the Potter.” We are the clay. He gets to decide how our lives are formed. We must trust that He has divine purposes in it all.

But we need to remember that God is not only Truth, not only all-knowing, not only all-powerful, not only the Creator, not only the One who gets to make the rules, He is love. It is His very nature and He has chosen to love us—so much so that He was willing to die in our place and to take the punishment we deserved. So we can trust that His righteous judgments, His decisions, His answers to our prayers, and even the difficulties He allows in our lives, are for our good, as well as, His glory!

Coming Up:

In the coming days, as we go through the books of Job and Romans and continue our yearlong journey through Psalms and Proverbs, we’ll look at sins that are contagious, what it means to be a miserable comforter, our impossible calling as believers, and our tendency to ask, “Why me?”

I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out our YouTube channel.

If this post spoke to you, I would love it if you would share it on your favorite social media platform.

And if you don’t already have a copy, you might want to purchase a copy of my eBook, 10 Benefits of Keeping a Spiritual Journal. It’s available on Kindle or in paperback (the paperback has 31 days of blank journaling pages with prompts to help you get started).

Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥

Note about this post:

I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer. 

A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”

I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)

I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.