There will be seasons of difficulty and problems for all of us who live on fallen planet Earth. More often than not, as we find ourselves in the middle of hardships, our fearful thoughts and emotions lean toward pessimism, helplessness, and hopelessness. Then the formidable power of these emotions sends us into a state of feeling overwhelmed in our circumstances. At times like these, even though God tells us He is able to bring good out of difficulty, it can be a challenge to grasp this truth. Let’s look at King David as an example: He had a bad day, in fact he called it the “day of my calamity”. Then if that wasn’t enough those who were against him, added insult to injury, by stirring up more chaos in his life, but even though spiritual and physical enemies were coming against him; David knew God had a plan to bring him to a better, larger place of spiritual maturity. Thus King David stated that in the day of his calamity, “the Lord was my stay.” In other words, David said that in the middle of the mess, the Lord was his place to run, his place to stay for a time and find release, relief, and rest. In God’s presence, David poured out his overwhelmed heart and received help, hope, faith, joy, and love- transporting his soul and spirit to a bigger, larger spiritual place than he had known before. So when life is hard, let’s not waste our troubles, or allow the enemy to lie to us about being defeated. But let’s use our struggles, as a catalyst, to lean into Jesus to find spiritual growth and peace. When we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances we must remember; God is on our side…He is for us not against us! The Lord wants to enlarge our hearts, so we will have the ability to abide and walk in His will, and experience love, peace, joy, and intimacy with Him that will surpass our greatest expectations!
