3 Keys to Having Strong Faith Even When Life is Still Hard

When everything in your life seems to go wrong it can be hard to imagine having a strong faith.

When you’re walking through hard times, it can be so hard to fully trust God. His plans are never like your plans, and his timing always seems like it’s so far away from your timing. Sometimes it seems like God takes so long to move, make a change, and make things right.

You know that you need to trust him and have faith that he’s looking out for you. But what happens when you don’t feel safe enough in your faith, in your situation to do that? Today want to give you three steps to feeling safe and sound in God when you’re walking through hard times. 

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

I’m a very logical and practical type of gal. I like to have my plans. I like to know step-by-step what’s going to happen, and I like to feel like I’m in control of something. Change throws me for a loop, and it’s something that I have struggled with these past three decades as I have been walking through one hard season after another.

It’s an area that God and I talk about a lot because I am usually complaining about the fact that he didn’t do something the way I thought he should do it or that he’s just plain taking too long. It’s okay, God understands where I’m coming from and I’m at the point where I can be honest with him about what I’m thinking and how I feel. 

I just don’t stay there. I have learned to humble myself and ask for his wisdom and guidance when it comes to my life because he has all the answers and he knows all. So, let’s talk about three things that have helped me learn how to truly trust God. 

To feel safe with him, to trust him with my hurts and my pains and my situation so that I can have a really strong faith that sees me through all of the hard things, but also allows me to just have peace and hope and enjoy my life even though things don’t look perfect. 

Cultivate Your Prayer Life for Strong Faith

The first step is to grow your strength by growing your faith. The main way that this has worked for me and the main way that I teach this with my students and my coaching clients is to connect with God through prayer. 

I have found no matter what is going on in my life, whether it’s depression, divorce, loss, financial hardships, or raising children, that when I feel at my weakest, it’s usually because I am not focusing on my relationship with God. I get my strength from him. 

He says that when we are weak that is when he is strong. It’s so true when I am spending time in my word, when I’m constantly going to God in prayer, that I feel like I can handle anything that comes my way. 

When I walk into something hard and start to feel unsafe, and insecure, or find myself struggling to trust God, I usually will do a quick check.  It’s likely that have I been neglecting spending time with him. I’ve not been reading my bible or praying as I should.

For me, the best way to connect with God is through prayer. Some people are really big on serving and Bible study, but prayer is my jam, and that is where I hear from God the most. It’s when I feel the closest to him. That’s what I encourage the women in this community to do. 

Step one, connect with God through prayer because that is where you’re going to find your strength. Prayer also includes other spiritual disciplines. So please don’t think that I’m telling you to ignore your bible, don’t fast, and don’t do all the things that you know are parts of Christian living. 

Renew Your Mind for Strong Faith

Step two is learning to cultivate a biblical mindset and understanding how to renew your mind so that you can have peace. Peace is something that is lost when you’re going through hard things. You don’t feel safe or secure. You’re looking for a place to rest, a safe haven. 

You’re trying to find all these ways out of your hard situations and often lack peace. I’ve learned over the years that peace is not the absence of trouble because that’s not possible in this life. It’s really difficult to have no trouble at all in your life. 

Peace is really about understanding that God is with you no matter what is going on. And I feel like So many times you know this in your head, but it can be a battle to get it in there your heart. This is something that I see so many times with clients the ladies, and it was my biggest battle for so long.

I knew what God said. I knew what his promises were. I knew his character, I knew his nature, and what that meant for me as his daughter. My mindset, my thoughts, and my emotions would often get the better of me. 

I would tell God, “I know you say that you’re going to provide for us and you’re going to make a way out.” But I would give into fear, worry, and anxiety instead. I had to learn to go to God and scripture so I have that biblical mindset. So that even when what was in front of my eyes didn’t make any sense I could stand firm on the word of God. 

The tool that most helped me with this was journaling. I would write down all of the noise and the thoughts and the stuff in my heart. I would get it out onto the page so that I could see it and deal with it. I could see what it was, get it out, recognize it, label it.

I learned to renew my mind by taking all those thoughts and emotions captive. To take them to scripture and God in prayer. And that has brought me so much peace over the years. 

Strong Faith Will Help You Live Your Life

Step three is learning to live your life. This is so important. I shared before about my revelation that I needed to move from constantly living in survival mode to enjoying my life, resting, having fun, and building relationships and all of those things. 

This is where you develop hope and joy. Remember, the joy of the Lord is meant to get you through those hard times. Often, we forget to be joyful because things are so hard, messy, and painful. Forgetting that you can be joyful, grateful, and live life and enjoy things even though things are hard. 

You forget to have hope and don’t dream beyond the current pain that you are feeling. When that happens, you miss out on so much. It’s absolutely 100% possible to have big dreams outside and on the other side of whatever hurtful thing you’re walking through right now. 

I’ve seen the blessings of learning to dream, learning to have hope, taking care of myself, resting, and having good, godly, encouraging relationships with other people. You’re not meant to suffer and be miserable every second of every single day. That’s not the life that God wants for you. 

That doesn’t mean that everything’s going to be perfect and everything’s going to be sunshine and rainbows. Even in the darkest times, you can find ways, moments, and seasons where you can enjoy your life. Those are the three steps that I wanted to share with you. 

Connecting with God through prayer to build your strength. Develop a biblical mindset by learning how to renew your mind through journaling. Living your life because that’s where you’re going to find hope and  joy. When you have strength, peace, hope, and joy that allows you to be fearless in the face of anything that life throws at you. 

Other Helpful Resources:

• 7 Simple Ways to Be Still and Listen to God
• How to Stop Being Controlled by Your Emotions
• The Importance of Being Persistent in Prayer

These 3 keys will help you maintain strong faith no matter how hard your circumstances are.