Handling Hardships
Posted on June 12, 2020 by Catey Stover in Victory Call
Our world has become so familiar with hardship. This year alone we have faced political conflict, massive forest fires, a global pandemic, and as of recently race disagreements started by the death of George Floyd. Regardless of individual opinions, the fact is that every single person in the world right now has to process some form of loss that has occurred in their life.
To be honest, the way that I have been trying to come to terms with these hardships has been far from great because just as I said, I was trying to process them in my minimal strength, with my limited knowledge. In my devotional time, God revealed to me the way that I should be handling hard times and I wanted to share that with you today.
In chapter 11 in 2 Samuel, King David, aka God’s anointed one, makes one of the biggest mistakes of his life. I’m sure you remember it from Sunday school where David lays with Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, and then kills her husband to hide his sin. However, what I want to share with you is from the following chapter, where David suffers the consequences of his sin; the child he had with Bathsheba dies because of his choices in the previous chapter. David is grieving, lying on the floor, refusing to eat because he is so upset. He then gets the official notice of his’s son’s death and let’s take a look at how he acts. In verse 20 it shares,
“Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.”
We cannot change the past and we can only prepare to a certain extent for the future. We can only make a difference in this moment because that is what we have control over. When you feel the wave of anxiety overwhelm you with the massive mountain that you have to climb ahead, start small like David. In that moment when he received the news, he took a shower. The very next thing David could do in that specific moment that would help him was putting on lotion and changing his clothes. Once he had finished doing all the seemingly small tasks, he realized that the next thing he needed to do “right now” was to get back right with God.
What I mean by this is that when David sinned in the previous chapter, he started slipping away from the purpose God had for him. He became more focused on his fleshy desires then being the warrior God had prepared him to be. It was when we went to the house of the Lord and worshipped did he start to see things turn around.
It is easy to worship the Lord when everything around us is comfortable. It is the moments when you experience great loss are when it becomes the most vital to maintain consistency with our spiritual disciplines however these are the times we often falter the most. Everyone who is living and breathing right now has faced hardships even if their trials look completely different from the ones we experience for ourselves. We need to mimic David and go to the house of the Lord and worship because alone we are never going to fix anything- we may be able to treat the symptom but God is the only true solution. Whether it’s by our own sin or the sin of others, we will all go through seasons of loss and these are the times we need to be clinging to the words of the Bible to get us through the valleys we face.
If you don’t have personal relationships with God I beg you to read the word and listen for His voice. Apart from Jesus, your suffering has no meaning. Understand that God sent his only son Jesus down to Earth to die so that we would never have to suffer isolation from God. God loves you and desires to be with you while you’re going through the hardships that life hurls at you.
Written by Kori Warren: Kori Warren serves as a Guest Services Representative and recent graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick with a BA in Planning and Public Policy. She is passionate about serving the Lord and showing His love for the people around her.
Think About This: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” -C.S. Lewis
The Daily Bible Reading: Psalms 113-117| You can download our 2020 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here.
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go [c]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [d]Amen. –Matthew 28:18-20
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the doctrinal and theological views held by America’s Keswick.
Want to get away & have dedicated time to read & learn God’s Word?
Consider a retreat at America’s Keswick retreat center.
