Keeping Faith in God During Hard Times

As I look out my window, I see the pouring rain drenching the deck and flooding the grass. The sound isn’t the peacefulness I enjoy when it barely drizzles. The sound is harsh, unrelenting, and out of control. The wind is forcing the leafless trees to move where they don’t want to go and will inevitably uproot the ones that aren’t deeply rooted. The wind chimes tremble and shake and blare at the storm.

The storm brewing outside reminds me of the storms of life. So often we want peace and calm in our lives, but life happens. And it’s anything but the peace and calm we long for. We have marital struggles, family struggles, health struggles, job struggles, financial struggles and on and on. Times are tough and we need God. So, how do we keep faith in God during hard times?

On occasion, friends who knew what I was going through have wondered about my strength in hard times. Recently a friend, knowing about a struggle, said “You always have a smile on your face!”. Others have said, “I don’t know how you can lead a Bible study with all you’re going through!” Even more have said, “how are you holding it together?”

Obviously, I don’t have any special ability to hold it together or to endure tough times. My struggles are real and they hurt, a lot! But I know the key to having faith in God, even in the midst of the storms. It’s easy and it’s not. This type of faith takes time and practice. You can’t wait until the most difficult thing in your life happens to implement it. We don’t want to have more difficult times to practice with, so it’s best to go ahead and practice these techniques when things are going okay.

1. Pray and ask God to increase your faith in Him. I know this is hard. I’ve experienced seasons when the pain was too much to indure. I was too hurt to pray. Seasons where every prayer was a tear-filled cry for help. I’ve experienced times when I was so spiritually oppressed that I felt like a dark cloud hovered over me and prayer just seemed impossible. The only way to break out of those seasons is to do the hard thing…pray. Start with asking God to remove the oppression and to help you. He will answer even the shortest smallest, one-word prayer…even the one word uttered through tears from a cracked voice. It may take days or weeks to get beyond the smallest prayer for help. Once it does, ask Him to increase your faith and trust in Him and in His plan. If you’re angry, tell Him. He already knows and He is more than able to handle our emotions. “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).
2. Along with praying yourself, ask others to pray for you. I know you don’t want to burden your friends and that they have their own things going on, but we need to pray for one another. We can’t be afraid to ask others for prayer. The Bible tells us to pray for one another because prayer matters. Ephesians 6:18 says “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” I have specific friends who I ask to pray for me and specific circumstances. There are a few who I ask fairly regularly and a larger group of friends who I ask when my need is great. I encourage you to find a few people you know and trust and ask them to pray for you and over your circumstance in the hard times (and really anytime).
3. Read, memorize, and meditate on Scripture. I increase my faith by focusing on the truth of God’s Word. When I’m really nervous or upset, I read the Bible. I pull out my phone and read it when I’m waiting in the doctor’s office or court. Instead of allowing the circumstances and problems of this world to steal my focus and peace, I choose to turn my focus toward the truth. Psalm 33:4 states, “For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is trustworthy.”  Sometimes, I read wherever I left off in the Bible. Other times, I read a familiar passage or something that is speaking to me at that time. I often read and focus on God’s promises that apply to specifically to me and my situation. The thing is, God’s Word is true and the truth helps us to understand our circumstances a little better. God’s Word sheds light in this dark world and helps us to see things more clearly. “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path” (Ps. 119:105).
4. Remember God’s faithfulness and God’s work in the past. The longer you’ve been a believer, the easier this is. More time with God equals more time to observe and recognize His goodness and faithfulness in your life; more time to see prayers answered. God is faithful. “But the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen and guard you from the evil one” (2 Thes. 3:3). To remember His faithfulness, consider the His work in and around your life. Think of something that couldn’t have happened without God’s intervention or a time when you felt God close to you. For example, there was a time when I was in an ambulance with internal bleeding. As a nurse, I knew how bad the situation was. I prayed to myself and felt a wave of perfect peace come over me. Now, it’s a time I can look back on and remember that if God was with me and gave me peace through that, He will do it again in any situation. Another way that I remember God’s faithfulness is through journaled prayer requests and answers. As you consider God’s faithfulness, thank Him for your past and present blessings and answers. Thankfulness will help you to trust God in hard times.
5. Praise God. Even if you’re in a difficult season, praise God. I remember going to church and praising God after my third miscarriage. I didn’t feel well physically and I was spiritually and emotionally drained. But I chose to praise God and He refreshed me. You could use music, singing, lifting your hands, kneeling…it doesn’t matter, but focus on God and praise Him. Remind Him and yourself of His attributes. He’s sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, holy, beautiful, loving, etc. As you praise God, you’re confirming who He is to yourself. You’re increasing your recognition that His works are wonderful and that He has your best interests in mind. You’re making yourself aware of His goodness and His plans. And you’re telling God that even in this storm, I trust You. “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I praise Him with my song” (Ps. 28:7).

To have faith in God during the hard times, we have to be rooted in God. We have to know Him before we will trust Him and His plans. We serve a good God who doesn’t seek to cause us harm. While His ways aren’t our ways, they are better and higher than we can comprehend. Having deep roots will allow Him to hold onto us, even when everything else is trying to pull us apart. “The man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green” (Jer. 17:7-8).

I mentioned the storm outside my window, but I was safe, warm, and dry inside. That is the safety that God offers us, even through the storms of life. He is our refuge and our strength and He’s always with us, helping us (Psalm 46:1).