This Trial
“If you are going through hell, keep going.” — Winston S. Churchill
Whatever trial you are going through, it might last awhile. Most troubles we face develop over time, and they take time to subside. Even those afflictions that take us by surprise do not disappear quickly, lasting for months or even years, and the aftermath can often be worse. Remember the “returning to normal” that we longed for in 2020? I’m not sure that ever happened.
So, when facing major difficulty, what are we going to do? Give up? Get discouraged? Climb into ourselves and quit emotionally? Let our guard down and let chaos take over?
Or are we going to see it through and come out winning? Because winning is not about playing well in the first half. It’s about finishing well through a hard-fought fourth quarter.
I wrote this in the back of my Bible as a young seminary student after hearing it from a chapel speaker: “The test of a man’s character is what it takes to stop him.”
Do you have what it takes to make it through this trial over the long haul?
Maybe not. Right now you can’t see how you can get through another day, much less several more months. But that’s not a bad place to be in…to see the certainty of your need for God to intervene…and for you to have to depend on Him.
It was one thing when the problem began. Shock triggered the adrenaline, which helped you get through it for a time. Then you realized you had to put your head down and push through. But if the time has not yet come for you, it probably will when you feel like you don’t have the energy to persevere. Because this is going to last a lot longer, we have to build our resolve to honor God all the way through…during financial hardships, relationship crises, times of anger over the situation, loneliness, boredom, or depletion of emotional strength.
But you can do it. The promise we have from Jesus is that He will be with us always, even to the end of the world. And I love this promise that God gave to His people in the Old Testament:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God” (Isaiah 43:1-3 ESV).