Strength in Adversity

Embracing Challenges as Opportunities for Growth

Have you ever found yourself in a catch-22, lost cause, dead end, point of no return, sinking ship, or bottomless pit scenario? Many of us have, and those who have not may soon find themselves there.

Examples of these situations might be chronic illness (stage four cancer), facing bankruptcy, addiction (struggling with substance abuse), marriage breakdown (divorce), losing your job, natural disasters, or just being abandoned and alone.

I want you to know that there is hope. No situation is genuinely hopeless, though they can feel that way. Please take a moment to think with me about this from a Bible believer's point of view.

All is Possible with God

I challenge you to believe in God. Jesus said that with man, some things are impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God. When you can’t see a way forward, God can still make a path.

Do you remember when Moses led the freed slaves from Egypt and they arrived at the Red Sea? Then, Pharaoh’s army trapped them between themselves and the Red Sea. There was no way out. Things were hopeless, yet God did what no one could expect. He split the sea. He gave a solution to an impossible problem.

You have a Biblical challenge to cast all your cares on the Lord. You need to know that He cares about you and wants you to trust Him when you are at your wit’s end. Ask God for wisdom. Ask believing and not doubting and He has promised to give you wisdom. He has never left you and never will. He loves you with an unconditional love, a love that remains constant no matter how much you have failed or where you are. So run to Him and trust Him to give you a way through, knowing that His love and care are unwavering.

Learn from your Trials

While we think we are in a hopeless situation, God is very likely training us and growing us into mature believers. James told us to consider it pure joy when we face all kinds of trials because the testing of our faith produces endurance. It strengthens us for the next thing that might happen in our lives.

That doesn’t make it easy, but it can make it better. It will be better when we realize God is increasing our faith, building us, and continuing to conform us to the image of Christ.

God delights to increase the faith of his children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. Trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith. George Müller

Think of the Bible story of Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery, he was falsely accused and imprisoned, and then the people he helped forgot about him. He could have given up hope, but he trusted God and learned valuable lessons. God made him the second in command in Egypt. Joseph used his abilities to save many from famine, including his family and the very brothers that had abused him.

We can learn and grow. God has not abandoned you, and He will not. He is at work in your life. He sees things you can not see. God has a plan, and you are important to Him. Never forget you are His favorite child. Trust in His plan and His constant presence to guide you through.

The apostle Paul taught us that our suffering would bring about endurance, and from there, we would develop character and finally hope. It takes tough lessons to get us to the point of maturity to be used by God in the fashion He has in mind.

Job suffered more than any man I can think of, but he never lost his faith in God. By the end of his trials, he understood God like never before, and his faith grew.

Don’t Give up

The Bible teaches us not to be weary in well doing because the harvest is coming, and we will enjoy that time. God wants us to hold on to Him no matter what. We can only do that as we learn more about Him, who He is, His character, and how He loves us.

No situation is beyond God’s care for you or His power to accomplish it. Believe God. Believe that He loves you. Lean into His person. Know that God is at work and it is all for your good and His glory.

There are always lessons to be learned and growth to be accomplished. These trying times will strengthen our faith. We persist in praying and believing. God specializes in impossible situations. God is the God of hope, even in the most hopeless situations.

Quotes

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"When the world says, 'Give up,' Hope whispers, 'Try it one more time.'" Unknown

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all." Emily Dickinson

"Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present." John Maxwell

"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers." Robert Green Ingersoll