Feel Like Nothing Will Ever Get Better? Don’t Throw in The Towel Just Yet

Holding on to hope when you feel like things will never get better is possible when you fully trust God.

Today let’s look at the belief that this situation is too hard and there is simply no way out of this. This lie speaks to what you think about your situation and your circumstances. The reason that this is important is that you can be secure in your identity, striving towards knowing God on a deeper level, but still be weighed down by the hard things in your life. 

It causes you to doubt, to be afraid and just to struggle in your faith. A great illustration of this is the story of Peter walking on the water. As long as he kept his eyes on the Lord, he was fine. The second he looks around and notices the wind, waves, and the storm that’s brewing, he starts to sink.

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The same thing happens when you look at your circumstances. Often it’s the difficult things that you simply cannot handle. You can’t see a way out of it and can’t overcome it, not on your own. You begin to tell yourself over and over again, this is impossible. 

There’s no way out. Nothing’s going to change. It’s never going to get better. When that happens, you begin to lose your confidence because your faith should give you the confidence that God is going to be there and work things out no matter what is going on. 

Today, I want to take a look at a passage of scripture that is a great illustration of somebody who was trapped in this lie but was able to overcome it with their faith in the Lord. We’re also going to look at letting go of control of things because that’s a big thing when it comes to our circumstances, how to overcome doubt, and how to handle our disappointments. 

In Mark 5 you’ll find the account of the woman with an issue of blood. Her story is just a few lines, but it’s still so powerful. You’ll find her story in verses 25- 34. 

“And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment for she said, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, you touched my garments. And his disciple said to him, you see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it, but the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the truth. And he said to her daughter, your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

There are so many good nuggets in this passage of scripture. At the beginning of chapter five, you’ll read about Jesus doing miracles and lots of healing. You’ll find the story of Legion, the man who had many demons in him. When you get to the woman’s story you’ll see a man named Jairus who’s coming to Jesus because his daughter is sick. 

She’s so sick that she’s about to die and he has heard about Jesus and what he can do, and he wants Jesus to come and heal his daughter. Now, Jairus, he’s has a top position at the synagogue. He’s a very important Jewish leader in the city. And so it’s very interesting that we get the story of this woman paired alongside his story. 

Because in that culture, if anybody was going to get anything it was going to be Jairus because he is a powerful man. He has position, he has authority, and all of this influence. Of course, he is going to get what he wants. He’s probably used to getting that. 

In Jewish culture, this poor woman has been bleeding for 12 years. And if you know anything about Jewish culture that would have rendered her unclean. If a woman was bleeding, she was deemed unclean and she was supposed to be separated from the men and everybody else because if they came in contact with her, then they could also be rendered unclean. 

For 12 years, she has probably lived a life of isolation because she’s not allowed to be around other people. As a woman, you probably know how draining bleeding and having those issues can be. She’s tired, she’s exhausted, she’s deemed unclean, and she’s looked down upon as less than. 

She’s gone from doctor to doctor to doctor, and nobody has been able to help her. Not only have they not helped her, she’s getting worse. So she spent all her money, she’s not any better, and nobody can help her. There’s probably this bit of being ostracized from society because of her condition. 

There’s this juxtaposition of this wealthy powerful man and this woman who has nothing. You see Jesus is on his way to go see Jairus’s daughter, and in the middle of that, this woman gets healed. I love that Jesus stops what he’s doing to find out what’s going on.

Yes, he knows he’s going to go heal this man’s daughter because she’s super important, but this woman also matters to him. So much that he’s willing to stop in a crowd of hundreds of people to find out who touched, and he speaks to her directly. 

What she does, it seems so small, but it is so key to how you can overcome this lie that your circumstances are so bad that nothing can be done. She says, “if I can touch his garments, I will be made well”. She makes up her mind that she’s going to get to Jesus because her faith is so strong that if she can just touch the bottom part of his clothes she’ll be made whole. 

This is why when Jesus speaks to her, he tells her that it’s her faith that has made her well.  She had this belief that her situation was impossible and nobody could do anything for her. If she had stayed focused on that, she would’ve missed out on the healing that she got by simply touching Jesus’ garment. 

What I pull from here for you is that it is your faith that sees you through those hard situations when you feel like there’s nothing to be done. You don’t have to do these big grand things. She simply touched probably the dirtiest part of Jesus because it was dragging on the ground. She just touched it and she was made whole.

Sometimes you get in your head that you’ve got to do these big grand gestures. You have to fast for 40 days and all of these things to get something that you need from the Lord. If you look at the story, it’s simply not true. She was healed because of her belief and her conviction in who the Lord was. 

The same goes for you. Let’s look at the three ways that I see this show up practically speaking. Often, we struggle to let go of control when things are going wrong. We think if you could just do this, make this person do this, or if you could just get to this thing it would be different. 

You want to be in control of things, which is a natural response. When things are completely out of control, you want to control it. But often, especially in those really hard seasons, nothing is in your control. That often leads to fear because everything is so out of control. 

You see that with the woman with the issue of blood. Everything was out of control in her body. She had no money or resources. There was nothing she could do to make herself better. But what did she do? She turned to the Lord because she knew Jesus was the answer. The same goes for you. 

The second thing that I see is this issue of doubt. You have this kind of nagging voice in the back of your mind because you think no things aren’t that bad. Surely God is going to step in. He can do something. You might wonder if you actually believe that.  

Scripture doesn’t say this, this is me reading into the text, but I believe that this woman dealt with a lot of this doubt because for 12 years she’s had this issue and she has done all the right things. She’s spent her money, she’s gone to the doctors and nobody that she knows has been able to help her. 

Often when I read this, I picture her in my mind having to pep talk her way into approaching Jesus. Because first of all, she’s a woman. She’s unclean and shouldn’t be there. I wonder if she struggled with those thoughts of doubting if Jesus would even be willing to heal her. 

He’s this Jewish man. Surely he knows the laws and the rules. She should not have been in the crowd. She should not have been touching people. Maybe she was worried that he would then be rendered unclean when she touched him because she was bleeding. 

We too have all of these things that go in our minds. I think the words that she speaks, that one sentence, is the answer to your doubts. When you are doubting if things can get better, if things can change, if God’s coming remember she says, if I even touch his garments, I’ll be made whole. 

She knew despite whatever doubts she may have been feeling, if she could just get to Jesus, that something would happen, that things would change, that she would be made well. And that is the answer to your doubts, is when your mind or situation wants to make you doubt if things can get better, if God cares, or if he’s there make up in your mind to just get to the Lord. 

The third thing is disappointment. I can remember many times when I would feel so disappointed because I was walking through this hard season for what seemed like forever, and it seemed like everybody around me was getting answers. 

They were being delivered from things, and God was doing these big things and I felt disappointed. A lot of times that comes from taking your eyes off of the Lord. You’re looking around at what seemingly happened to other people. 

You don’t know their stories or their journey, and you don’t know what God’s plan is for their lives. You get focused on that instead of keeping your focus on the Lord. When you feel disappointed go back to standing on the truth of who He is, what his character is, and what he has promised to you.

You’re going to feel disappointed. I mean, look at this poor woman. Over 12 years, she’s spent her money, gone to these men who were supposed to help her. They’ve just taken her money and left her worst for the wear. She was extremely disappointed, but they didn’t keep her from going to the Lord to get what she needed. 

She knew he was the answer. The key is that you have to always be looking to the hills where your hope comes from. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Because when your eyes are on the Lord, you’re not going to see all of the stuff that’s going on. You’re not going to see all the things that are happening to other people. 

You’re only going to see him. That is where your hope is and how you can have that confidence. It’s not the confidence in the situation. It’s confidence in the Lord who hears you, who sees you, that he loves you, and that he’s going to step in and be there with you and see you through. 

Other Helpful Resources:

• Overcoming Your Trust Issues So You Can Truly Trust God
• The Truth Behind God’s Restoration Plan
• The Key to Being Able to Discern God’s Voice

Holding on to hope during hard times is only possible when you rely on God.