Its 1:00 AM
You’ve been tossing and turning ever since you went to bed, but somehow you still cannot get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Every detail about tomorrow’s problems are running through your head and you are trying frantically in your mind to come up with a solution so you can wake up with some semblance of peace in the morning.
You’re doing everything you think you should be doing like praying to God and even doing your devotions. But somehow, you are still stuck in your own isolated desert, thirsty & overwhelmed. Forget thrive, you are just trying to survive.
Sound familiar?
Let me tell you, I’ve been there. I know exactly what it feels like when you have a million things going wrong and God seems so far away, so out of reach, so unattainable. It’s like, “Hello, God! Are you here?”
Our circumstances may not be the same, but there are a few things that I have learned in my season of trials. I know God can seem so far away sometimes. I hope can be an encouragement to you today and give you a new perspective.
3 Ways To Thrive In Your Struggle
1. Realize It is not your fight.
Hang on there, Cassidy. It sure feels like my fight. I am exhausted and discouraged. This involves my family my job, my money, my heart, my spiritual life. What do you mean this isn’t my fight?
I am positive that if you are going through some kind of trial right now and your spiritual life feels dry that you are discouraged and exhausted. But one of the most comforting verses that I have found is Scripture is Exodus 14:14
“The LORD will fight for you, you need only be still”.
Exodus 14:14, ESV
If you are anything like me, this verse is hard to take at first. I like having control and fighting my way to a solution. But here, He says, “I got this, let me do it”. Honestly, it’s hard to relinquish my “authority” (that I think I have) over my problem to Him. But He wants to fight for you.
He wants to let you be in awe of His strength and let it draw you closer to Him.
He wants to overcome this thing for you so there is no doubt that He did it. If we want to thrive, we must let Him take over our battles. The LORD will fight for you, you need only be still.
2. Seek Him to Know Him
Maybe you are right in the middle of this trial and you keep clinging to James 4:8 that says, “Draw near to the LORD and He will dry near to you”, but nothing is happening. Part of you really believes that this verse just must not apply to you.
But let me ask you this.
Are you drawing near to God for relief from your circumstances, or are you drawing near to Him because there is a desperate desire deep in your soul to know Him?
I ask this question because you will get a different outcome based on your response. If you are only seeing after God because you need relief from your situation, that closeness that you are trying to attain is directly tied to your circumstance.
Once it’s all better and things are good once again, more than likely, you will cease to seek after Him.
You don’t need Him anymore because your problem is no longer beyond you. If you are seeking after Him because you desperately desire to know Him and His power in an intimate way, you will have a foundation that withstands every storm.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for relief from your circumstance.
In fact, we see over and over again in scripture examples of people crying out to the LORD for help. We are even encouraged to bring our needs before God (Phil. 4:6). However, if these are the only reasons we are praying to Him and seeking Him, we will end up unsatisfied and when the next problem comes up, we go back into this cycle all over again.
Related: For The Girl Who Doesn’t Feel Victorious
3. Shift your focus
Have you ever noticed that the thing that you put all of your energy and emotions into is normally the thing that demands most of your attention and focus?
Honestly, this one was really hard for me.
In my life, the thing that had most of my focus was a mysterious illness. This illness leaves me in a state of semi-paralysis and then physical exhaustion and can be triggered by almost anything. After I started having episodes, my life changed. Every day, I constantly make mental notes of what I can and cannot do based on how I am feeling.
What would the physical toll be if I did said thing while I wasn’t feeling well? Do I feel well enough to walk to the bathroom without my phone in case I collapse? All these things make sense and are things that I needed to consider, but at one point, my illness consumed my thoughts.
Then one day, I heard a song that goes like this…
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”.
I had heard this song 100 times but on this particular day, it just stuck with me. Not to minimize my life-changing illness that leaves me paralyzed, but in light of all that God is; how powerful He is, How mighty He is, all the things that He created, and the depth of His love, my problem began to shrink.
When I began to focus on the lover of my soul instead of the weakness of my body, I began to thrive. Click To Tweet
This meant devoting more time to Him than a quick devotion right before I went to bed. It meant more than just praying and asking God to take away the struggle. This meant falling in love with my Savior, my Redeemer, My High Priest, my Abba Father, my King, my Lord.
It meant changing my mindset.
Some days, I would sit in a puddle of tears after a discouraging doctor’s appointment. I would beg God to give me His perspective.
And you know what, after a while, He did just that. I wasn’t seeing the world through rose-colored glasses or anything but shifting my focus from my inadequacies and weakness to Jesus and His power brought streams to my desert and made things a little sweeter.
I know that shifting our focus isn’t exactly an easy thing to do. It requires intentionality and surrender.
Shifting our focus is an intentional action.Click To TweetWhat about you? Are these things hard for you too? What are some things your do to refocus your attention on Him?
