Refreshing Faith

Some weeks, trusting God feels natural. We can see His provision, recognize answers to prayer, and look ahead with hope.

Other weeks, faith feels harder.

A phone call changes everything. A loss leaves an empty place we cannot ignore. A situation we have prayed about remains unresolved. We keep doing our best to follow Jesus, but we are tired, and we wonder how much longer things will stay this way.

It is in those moments that we need to remember: difficulty does not mean God has abandoned us.

This past Sunday, we looked at Paul’s instruction to take up the shield of faith in Ephesians 6:16. That image has stayed with me. A shield belongs in a battle. Paul knew believers would face temptation, discouragement, and fear. His instruction gives us something to hold onto when those things come.

Faith means we can trust God right in the middle of what we do not understand.

And sometimes that trust begins with a very honest prayer.

“Lord, I am hurting.”

“I do not know what to do.”

“I believe You are here, but I am having a hard time seeing it.”

We do not have to clean up those prayers before bringing them to God. In Psalm 13, David asks how long the Lord will seem to forget him. A few verses later, he says:

“But I trust in your unfailing love.”
—Psalm 13:5, NIV

Both belong to the same prayer. David’s pain is real, and so is his trust.

That gives us permission to come to God with tears in our eyes and questions still unanswered. We can grieve and believe. We can feel afraid and still take a step of obedience. We can admit that we are struggling while continuing to reach toward Jesus.

When life is painful, our circumstances can begin to shape everything we believe about God. If the answer has not come, we assume He has not heard. If the burden remains, we wonder whether He cares.

But we need to look at Jesus.

At the cross, we see how deeply God loves us. In the resurrection, we see that suffering, sin, and death do not have the final word. Whatever we are facing today, we are bringing it to a Savior who entered our suffering and overcame the grave.

That is why we can pray with hope. God is able to deliver.

He can open a door we cannot open. He can bring healing, restore what is broken, and provide what we need. We should ask Him for those things. We do not need to apologize for praying boldly.

At the same time, trusting God means placing the outcome in His hands.

In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed God could rescue them from the furnace. They also declared that their faithfulness to Him would continue even if He did not rescue them in the way they hoped.

That is a difficult kind of faith to live. We want to know how the story will turn out before we take the next step.

Yet God invites us to trust His character while the outcome is still beyond our sight.

Sometimes He changes the circumstances. Sometimes He sustains us through a season we desperately wanted Him to remove. His deliverance may come differently, or later, than we hoped. And our deepest Christian hope reaches beyond this life: through Jesus, death itself will finally give way to resurrection life.

We can be certain of His faithfulness even when we cannot be certain of what tomorrow will bring.

While we wait, there are simple ways to keep turning toward Him.

Remember where His grace has already carried you. Think about the person He brought alongside you, the strength He gave you for a difficult day, or the provision you did not know was coming. Yesterday’s faithfulness does not tell us exactly how He will work tomorrow, but it reminds us whom we are trusting.

Let someone walk with you. Tell a trusted believer what is actually going on. Ask for prayer. Accept help. God often cares for us through people willing to listen, bring a meal, make a phone call, or sit beside us when there are no easy words.

Then take the next faithful step.

You may not know what the next six months will look like. Today, you can pray. You can open Scripture. You can reach out to someone. You can do what you already know Jesus is asking you to do.

That is part of growing as a disciple: learning to depend on Him in the actual circumstances of our lives.

If you are walking through a difficult season, you do not have to pretend it is easy. Bring the burden to Jesus. Ask Him to intervene. Trust Him to sustain you. Let His people stand beside you.

The struggle you are facing has not placed you beyond His reach.

God is present. He is able to deliver. And whatever lies ahead, you can entrust yourself to His faithful love.

Where do you need to trust Him today—and what is one faithful step you can take?