The Hard Things In Your Life

Don’t shy away from the hard realities of your life.
Let me say that again— Don’t ignore, downplay, or dismiss the difficult realities of your life. By being honest with yourself and honest with trusted individuals in your life & with God, you take steps toward wholeness.
It’s okay to not have the answers for your difficult circumstances when you do share.

By sharing about those— painful and difficult things, the painful realities of your life— with trustworthy, empathetic, and kind people— You can take steps toward wholeness. You are not alone dealing with that reality. Your friend doesn’t have to have wise words or answers for your problems, but they do need to validate your hard and be willing to be honest about their own hard in their life.

The realities may not have changed at all, but the perspective can be different. You are not keeping secret the hard things in your life— you are letting others in.

You are not alone. You are connected to others in it. It can be scary and vulnerable to tell another person the hard life realities you are dealing with. It can be risky— There could be judgment, rejection, or a pulling back from you of that person.
Hopefully, though, you chose a person who was trustworthy, empathetic, and validating, someone who is working to be honest about the hard in their own life too.

Another step in this is to be honest with God about the hard difficult things in your life. Did you know He already knows about them? Yes, He does know, but it is vital for you to talk to Him and share those painful things your heart carries with Him, in relationship with Him.

You can do both of these steps simultaneously- talking to God about the hard stuff and being willing and choosing to share with a trustworthy person in your life.
Psalm 34:4 says “I sought the Lord, and He answered me: He delivered me from all my fears.”

Jeremiah 17:7-9 says “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out His roots by the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, it’s leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

If we choose to trust in God and put our confidence in Him, we are called blessed. If we are rooted in God, then even when the challenges and struggles and difficult realities of our life hit us, we are not alone but able to withstand each battle because we are planted in God. Our roots, our inner self, are tapped into His word, getting spiritual nourishment from His truth. We know His promises.
We hold fast and stand in confidence— not in our own confidence, but His, as we face our difficult life circumstances.

Fear and worry won’t grip us and control us, because we know who’s we are. We can still be honest about the realities of our life— That is important. But we aren’t doing it alone. All of a sudden the hard seems more possible to face, even if no circumstances have changed because our perspective has changed completely to facing it in God’s strength and by His leading and power.

Will you choose to take a step of bravery today friend and consider what hard things are in your life? — This is not to weigh you down though it may feel weighty as you catalog in your mind or on a written page or notes app what hard things are in your life.

After you take time and truly pause and consider what those “things” are and you write them down, look over your list.
Now, tell yourself “These are hard, but I am not alone. There is hope through God.”
Next, talk to God about them. Tell Him them one by one and ask Him for His help in each one.
Psalm 55:22 says “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

God can sustain you through those hard seasons. He has sustained me through lengthy hard seasons of my life. When you seek Him and want to know Him, He draws near to you friend. He is patient and loving and kind.
It is hard to face and name the hard things in your life but it is a turning toward bravery. It is a step toward victory and not allowing them to defeat you. It is a turning toward the only One who truly can bring strength to you in the midst of what you are walking through— God.

God is that One who brings strength, sustainment, and victory if you will open yourself up to Him and trust Him with your life. Hard things will come, but you won’t walk them alone. Your perspective will be different for you will have hope.