Life can be challenging. No matter what your age or life stage, we all get discouraged.
Whether you’re stressed from too much work, or anxious because you lost your job, you may feel depleted. Maybe you’re wiped out from caring for kids or aging parents all day–or you’re lonely because you just moved across the country and don’t know anyone yet. Either way, we all have times when we feel like giving up.
How do you press on when you just don’t have it in you? How do you stand strong in challenging times?
You need a solid foundation.
When a skyscraper is under construction, workers first dig a foundation and then pound steel reinforcing rods called pylons deep into the earth so the building will stand tall and not tumble.
Then, concrete is poured into the shaft with the pylons for a super-strong hold.
The same can be true as you build a “foundation” in your own life—as you grow deeper, you grow stronger in your faith. As you immerse yourself in the ways and wisdom of God, the reinforced truth, like pylons of
Hope,
Trust,
Courage, and
Faith,
help you become stronger on the inside.
So when you’re discouraged, and your life is spiraling downward, you will be able to withstand more readily the gale-force winds of hard times and pain because your inner foundation is deep and strong.
Steel upon steel, story upon story a structure is built.
Likewise, God’s Word tells us that hope comes step by step as “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3, 4)
So, how do you press on when times are tough? Here are four (4) vital things to help you persevere with God’s strength:
1) Cast your cares. Don’t take on burdens you were never meant to bear—like worry, fear and doubt. They’ll weigh you down and hinder you from being effective.
Instead, give God your fears; surrender trying to do it all on your own to Him. In other words, like a fishing line, “cast your cares, and don’t reel them back in again.” Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”
2) Press on in prayer. Prayer is the foundation upon which everything else is built in your life. It the most important thing you can do. You may think, “I’ve already prayed, what other solutions are there?” Keep on praying.
Talk to God about your situation, because He is the one who has the power to change it. As you pray, believe God is working and stand in the strength you receive.
3) Send in reinforcements. Sometimes you need backup. It’s amazing what happens when you receive support in prayer from friends and family members who are willing to pray for you and with you.
When you don’t know what to pray, when you’re spent emotionally or physically, or, like Moses, when you need someone to “hold up your arms” (to support you), the prayers of others on your behalf can give you a boost to keep going.
4) Take action. Taking one small step can lead to another and another and it builds momentum, and things begin to change. You will not be in this hard place forever. God will help you through. Unlike others who may have let you down, God keeps His promises. When you take action in prayer, God moves on your behalf.
Perseverance takes courage. Believe that God hears your prayers; He sees your tears, and He is at work in your life.
There are still purposes to be fulfilled—lives to touch, things to accomplish, and character to be formed on the inside.
Press on, pray on, with holy tenacity, holding on to hope that one day—maybe soon—things will change for the better: the check will come, the job will be yours, or the house will be filled with a child’s laughter.
Today, we pray and trust Him.
RESOURCES
For more hope and inspiration, check out these books by Jackie M. Johnson:
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