Tag Archives: hard times

December 4, 2025 · 5:30 AM

Yet I Will Praise Him

If you’ve ever read the book of Job, you may have found yourself feeling sorry for him. There may have been times in your life when you’ve even related to him too. I know I have had those moments. When you go through periods of loss or continuous disappointment, Job is a great book to read. You will find that there’s always someone who has it worse than you, there is purpose in pain and that you can endure anything. I don’t know how many times I’ve read the book, but I can tell you that I’m still amazed when I come to the end of the first chapter. After Job has lost all his livestock, his riches and his children, he doesn’t curse God. He doesn’t cry out, “Why me?” Instead, it says he fell to his knees and worshipped God. He recognized that everything he had came from God, and if God took it all back, he was good with it.

I can honestly say that during my times of great disappointment and loss, that was not my attitude. To stand on rock bottom in life, look up from the hole you’re in and bless God seems unfathomable, yet Job was able to. If he was able to, you and I are to. He made the choice to worship instead of to whine. He chose to bless God instead of to curse Him. He made the choice to recognize everything he had belonged to God and wasn’t a result of His own work. The perspective he had challenges me to readjust and calibrate how I see God and how I react in the bad times. It’s easy to worship when things are going well, but can we worship when everything seems to be going wrong? Can we praise Him when our prayers are unanswered? Can we thank Him when we don’t see a way forward? Can you say, “Even though I’m broken, yet will I praise you”?

Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (NLT) There’s a very similar picture here to the attitude Job had and that we are to have. Joy is not something that is circumstantial. It doesn’t rely on what’s going on around you. Joy looks at where your strength comes from. It looks at who your hope is in. It is defiant in the face of any circumstance you may face, and it says, “My hope is not in all, these things. My hope is in God. No matter what comes my way, I know that my God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than I can ask or pray for. Even though things look bad now, yet will I praise God! He is my rock, my fortress and my salvation.” You and I have that same spirit of joy within us. In tough times, activate it and worship. Remind yourself that God is in control, He has a plan and that no matter what happens you will continue to trust and to praise Him.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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December 1, 2025 · 5:43 AM

Trust The Process

One of the lessons in life we have to learn is that everyone will go through difficult times. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus said that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. So hard times are not just part of life, they’re part of God’s plan for you. It matters how we respond in them, how we trust in them and how we grow in them. Honestly, it’s hard to see God’s hand when we are going through a difficult time, but I’ve learned that He’s always there in them guiding me and shaping me through them. When you get further away from them and look back, it’s easier to see His hand at work during those times. That’s why how we respond in them matters.

In Genesis 37, Joseph was a young boy who did things that made his brothers hate him. Being his father’s favorite didn’t help. When God gave him dreams about his brothers bowing down to him, it set off a chain of events that saw his brothers beat him up, sell him as a slave, he was falsely accused and sent to prison where he was forgotten. He trusted God through years of difficulties knowing that somehow God would use these circumstances to fulfill the dream. It’s hard to hard to look ahead when times are hard, so Joseph simply trusted God’s plan. In one day he was freed and placed second in command of Egypt. It may have seemed like it suddenly happened, but it was years in the making as God grew and shaped Joseph. When his brothers arrived and bowed down, he didn’t gloat. Instead he forgave.

In Genesis 50:20 Joseph told them, “Even though you intended to hurt me, God intended it for good. It was his plan all along, to ensure the survival of many people” (TPT). Joseph was able to see God had caused it to rain in his life, not because he had done anything wrong, but so that others could be saved as a result of his suffering. When you look back at the hardest times of your life, what do you see God doing? I can see Him repositioning me and reshaping me. If you’re feeling forgotten right now or going through the hardest time of your life, keep trusting God’s plan. You may not get the perspective right away to see what He’s doing, but if you trust Him and the process, He will make sure that all things work together for your good and the good of others.

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August 20, 2025 · 5:32 AM

Spiritual Grit

Since I was a kid I have loved the story of David Wilkerson. He was a young pastor that God called to the gangs of New York City. They continuously rejected him and his message. He knew if he could convert the gang leader, Nicky Cruz, the rest would follow. At one point Nicky pulled out a switchblade knife and threatened to kill David and chop him up. Instead of backing down, David told him that every drop of blood would cry out that Jesus loved him. David’s spiritual grit kept doing what God called him to no matter what. Eventually Nicky gave his heart to the Lord and so did several gang members.

Nehemiah was another person who had spiritual grit. He was living in captivity and got a burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He returned and started rebuilding them with the Jews who remained in the land. In chapter 4 their enemies were upset that they were rebuilding and threatened to attack. Instead of backing down, Nehemiah had the people build with one hand and carry a sword in the other. In verse 17 he encouraged the workers by saying, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!” (NLT) They completed the work in record time.

Hebrews 10:36 says, “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” God didn’t promise that you wouldn’t have trouble or opposition. Instead He told us to buckle down and keep going despite it. The easy thing is to hide until hard times pass, but if we want to see God’s will and plan for our life come to fruition, we must pick up our sword in one hand and continue working with the other. We need to have spiritual grit to receive all God has promised to us. We need the kind that continues doing Gods will even in the hard times and endures whatever comes our way.

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August 11, 2025 · 5:34 AM

Finding Peace

There have been many times in my life where circumstances wanted to rule my emotions and dictate my behavior. We all face these stresses in life. Sometimes they’re from a monetary circumstance, a relationship, a job or sickness. If we allow worry and stress to consume our mind, we will be a mess.its hard not to let them rule your thoughts life during those times. What do those thoughts and emotions accomplish or solve? Nothing. The best advice I heard someone give was that you can’t control your circumstances or the chaos in your life, but you can control where your thoughts live. Keep them on the One who can control those things and you will have peace.

In Daniel 6, Daniel faced people who didn’t like him and were trying to set traps for him. They were trying to ruin his career, his reputation and his life. He didn’t let it rattle him. He continued stopping everything he was doing several times a day to pray. When the king had him put in the lion’s den, we don’t hear anything out of Daniel. The king was stressed over it and couldn’t sleep. However, Daniel kept his thoughts in check and had peace while he was surrounded by lions. Even though he should have been devoured by his circumstance, he wasn’t and God delivered him.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (NLT) God offers us peace in any circumstance we face if we will keep our thoughts fixed on Him. A good way to do that is to look up God’s promises, His names and other Bible verses where God delivered people. You can also spend time in focused prayer where you shut out the world and get alone with God. He is the One who gives wisdom, bring healing, provides and sees you. If you want peace in whatever comes your way, start by fixing your thoughts on Him.

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July 7, 2025 · 5:29 AM

The Wilderness Of Preparation

There have been times in my life when things were clicking and moving quickly. God’s plan for me was gaining ground so fast as if it were making up for lost time. Then without warning, things would come to a screeching halt. In those seasons I would wonder if I did something wrong or if I made God mad. He would seem to be silent during those times too. These periods would last days, weeks , months and even years. It made me think that the wilderness I was in was a place of punishment. However, I’ve learned that those seasons in the wilderness are periods of preparation for what’s coming.

In Exodus, we read the story of Israel being delivered from Egypt. We don’t know how long the period of the plagues were, but there were instructions for the tenth plague. In chapter 12 verse 11 God told them, “These are your instructions for eating this meal: Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover” (NLT). Freedom came quickly and they took off in the middle of the night. They hurried toward the Promised Land. God parted the Red Sea and met them at Sinai. Then the entered the wilderness of preparation for 40 years. God had moved them out of Egypt, but He had to get the Egypt out of them before they were ready to possess the land.

In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul reminds us, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” God uses periods of troubles, set backs and aimless wandering to produce in us the things we need. The longer we sit and complain in these seasons, the longer it will take to get out of. They are to remove things from our lives that we can’t carry with us into the next season and to produce character traits we will need. The wilderness isn’t to necessarily punish you for mistakes as much as it is intended to prepare you and produce things in you that can’t be brought about any other way.

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February 27, 2025 · 5:30 AM

Broken And Beautiful

There are a few ways to do a puzzle. Some people open the box and pull out a couple of pieces at a time. Some people grab a handful to see if there are any matches. Then there are people like me who dump the whole box in the middle of the table. I like to see all the pieces I’m working with and begin forming the puzzle from the outside in. No matter how you start a puzzle, I think you’ll agree that it’s frustrating to get all the way to the end only to find that you’re missing a piece or two. You check the box, the floor, your chair and all around the table where you’re working. You need all the pieces if you’re going to be able to complete it. There’s just something satisfying about completing a puzzle with all the pieces.

If you’re reading this, then your life has been broken somewhere along the way. It’s part of the human condition. Our lives get shattered, we scoop up the pieces and try to move forward by putting them back together again. Sometimes our brokenness makes it hard to trust people again or even God. If only He would have intervened, then our life wouldn’t have been shattered. If only He would have answered our desperate prayers, then we would be whole still. When you’re holding the broken pieces of your life, it’s easy to look back and think that you’d be whole right now “if only (you fill in the blank).” The truth is we’re all broken to some degree and we’re holding the pieces of our life trying to put things back together the way they were. But what if you were broken so God could put the pieces back together in a more complete and beautiful way?

I love mosaic art because it’s formed from broken pieces. I believe it’s the same type of artistry God uses when we give Him the pieces of our brokenness and allow Him to put our life back together. Psalm 18:20 says, “GOD made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him” (MSG). For God to make our life complete and whole again, He can’t have any missing pieces. You must surrender all the pieces to Him. He knows there are parts of us that we hold back from Him because of fear, but He patiently and lovingly waits for us to trust Him enough. God rewrites the story and picture of our lives when we give Him all the pieces and He makes something beautiful out of the mess. He does His part when we do ours and surrender the pieces. He takes our brokenness and makes something beautiful out of our mess.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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February 12, 2025 · 5:28 AM

God Is Always There

I used to work for a cell phone company. Internally they always told us that we were a utility company and that we needed to be available at all times. When Hurricane Katrina moved into the gulf, they told me to pack a bag and be ready. I remember getting a call in the middle of the night telling me to grab my bag and head to work. It made landfall at night and we were headed to it. They said that we run to a crisis not from it. We put in twenty hour days getting communications back up. We sleep on the floor of the building we worked in to be as efficient as possible. We wanted the people of New Orleans and the gulf coast to know we were there for them in their time of crisis and that they weren’t alone.

A couple of years before that, I had gone through my own personal crisis. People that had said they would always be there for me, disappeared. When everything came crashing down, there were only a couple of people who were truly there to help me through it. Even though they checked on me and spent time with me, I was still alone at night. I couldn’t run from the pain or escape the thoughts that filled my mind. In those moments, I learned to run to God. I found that in my loneliest moments, He was there. When I didn’t feel like I could call someone in the middle of the night, I called on Him. He proved to be a very present help in my time of need.

Psalm 46:1 says, “God, you’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need you” (TPT). It is believed that this psalm was written during a time when Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian army and there was no hope of anyone coming to save them. The people cried out to God and He sent the Assyrians home miraculously. He truly never leaves you and is there when there seems to be no way out or forward. He will make a way where there seems to be no way, and He will not abandon you. He will stick with you closer than a brother. He is always available when you need Him most. He had proven it throughout history and He will do it for you. Don’t despair. There is always hope because you have a place of refuge in your time of need who is more than able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you need.

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December 17, 2024 · 5:32 AM

Manna For The Moment

I’m in a men’s group that focuses on personal growth. At the first meeting, the leader asked each person to introduce themselves and then share one of their highest moments in life and also one of their lowest points. As each man shared, I began to see a common thread of seasons of pain these men had been through. One man said it was a lot easier to think of the hardest times in his life than the good ones. Jokingly he asked if he could share two low points rather than one of each. We tend to remember the times in our life when we’ve hot rock bottom or when we struggled to make progress. In the moment we weren’t sure we could make it through. However, looking back, we can see God’s grace was sufficient for the moment we were in.

In Exodus 16, the Israelites had been set free from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. God had promised them a land of their own and they were on their way. They had seen the mighty hand of God moving on their behalf to set them free. They had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, yet they found themselves in a wilderness that made them want to return to their pain and suffering. They began to complain to God asking for food. In verse 12 God told Moses, “I have heard the murmurings of the Israelites; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God’ ” (AMP). God gave them manna for the moment they were in. It was sufficient for the day. They were to take what they needed and nothing more. God did this until they reached the land He had promised.

In Matthew 6, the disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray. He began reciting what we call the Lord’s Prayer. You’ve probably prayed it thousands of times, but there’s something right in the middle of it that reminds us of that manna. In verse 11 He prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God has always given us what we need for the moment. Jesus taught us to pray for it without complaining. If you’re standing in one of the low points of your life right now, I want you to know there is grace to sustain you in this moment. Like the Israelites, you’ll need to go to God to get it daily. Use this time to lean on Him and to learn to trust in Him. If you’re in one of the higher points or have come through a low point, don’t stop going to Him for your daily bread. The manna He gives is fresh every day and is provided for you to keep trusting Him as you go through this life.

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December 4, 2024 · 5:43 AM

God’s Gift Of Joy

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a group of angels appeared to shepherds nearby. At first the shepherds were afraid. Luke 2:10-11 says, “But the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!’” (NLT) God was gifting the world a savior and with Him joy. Biblical joy is more than the emotion of happiness. It is a contentment in any situation that comes from faith and trust in God. His joy also gives us strength to endure whatever we’re going through. God wasn’t just giving us a Savior from our sins. He was giving us Immanuel, His Son who would be with us in whatever we face.

In John 15, Jesus was telling us that He is the vine, our source, and we are the branches. He reminded us of God’s love for us and that we are to remain in Him. Life’s pressures will try to separate you from Him, but we must remain because there is nothing that can separate us from His love. In verse 11, He goes onto say, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” Our joy comes from remaining in Him and resting in His love when fear, hunger, worry, death or all the powers of hell come against us. Our choice to remain will produce the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. One of the fruits that He wants to cultivate is joy because it is not contingent on our circumstances. Our faith sees beyond the moment we’re standing in and trusts in His plan.

When Paul wrote the letter to the Church at Rome, he had been in prison and been beaten for His faith. His words to them were born out of faith and trust in God rather than his temporary pain. In Romans 15:13 he wrote, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Those words should encourage us today. God will not only give you hope that this too shall pass, but He will also give you joy in the midst of your pain. He will give you strength to endure and come out on the other side producing fruit in a barren season because you trust in and remain in Him. His gift of joy to you this season is a gift worth cherishing and holding onto.

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November 19, 2024 · 5:31 AM

No Shortcuts

Several years ago there was a college admissions scandal. Several rich, prominent families were paying people off in order to give their kids an unfair advantage in getting into colleges. A lot of famous people committed fraud doing this while paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribe money. What they didn’t understand was how they were setting their kids up for failure in life. By contrast, people like Kevin O’Leary and Warren Buffet have given their kids very little to help them in life. They have said that they don’t necessarily want their kids to inherit their wealth because they won’t have struggled to gain it. The struggle is where they learn to appreciate it and value it. They believe that taking financial struggles away from their kids will cripple them in the long run and destroy their character.

In the Bible, God used struggle and hardship as part of His process to strengthen people, develop character and to get people ready to lead. Joseph stands chief among them. When he was a teenager, God gave him dreams of what his future would hold. He shared them with his family and was a punk to his brothers. They resented him for his behavior and dreams, so they grabbed him, stripped him, and sold him as a slave. His favored status was gone and years of struggling ensued as he worked in Potiphar’s house and went to prison. While he was in prison and forgotten, God worked on his character. When he was ready, God redeemed him from the pit and placed him second in command to Pharaoh. When his brothers came seeking help, he didn’t take revenge. He recognized God’s hand in the struggle.

James 1:3-4 says, “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (NLT). God has a process to grow you and place you. It isn’t an easy one. Don’t have the mindset of the people above who tried to shortcut the process. That ultimately affects your development and character. Trials and tests are part of the growth process. If you want to be complete, lacking nothing, you must submit to the process. It won’t be easy, but the strength you will gain will maximize your ability to reach the potential God placed in you. Instead of trying to use a shortcut, ask God for strength, wisdom and courage to endure. You can become the person God sees in you and be used for greater things.

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