In life, there are moments when everything seems to be falling apart. No matter what you touch, it all turns to ruins. You try a business, and it fails. Your partner is considering leaving for good. When you wake up, your phone is filled with notifications of unpaid bills. A glance at your next payslip shows your account balance deep in the negative.
You begin to wonder: Why is this happening to me right now? What happened to the good old days? Has God abandoned me?
Sadly, many people sink deeper into this dark hole. They lose all hope and, in the worst cases, even abandon their faith in God.
Even the great King David once lost heart because of the troubles facing his kingdom, Israel. We see this clearly in his prayer recorded in Psalm 80:4-6 (NKJV):
4 O Lord God of hosts, How long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in great measure. 6 You have made us a strife to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves.
David was one of the most influential kings of his time, yet he fought many fierce wars to earn that respect. This prayer likely came during one of those seasons when everything seemed to be collapsing around him. You may be feeling exactly the same way today.
Although David faced opposition from enemy nations, he also faced resistance from his own people. Many questioned the legitimacy of his kingship, and his own son Absalom later tried to overthrow him.
Your story may be different from David’s, but you might still find yourself standing on the edge of a cliff—trapped in a desperate situation.
The real question is this: Is this the time to give in to despair and bury yourself in your circumstances? Does this situation truly define you, or are you allowing it to? Above all, is this the time to lose hope and give up the one thing you still have left—hope?
This is precisely what sets you apart from the rest of the world: believing even when everything seems to be falling apart. It is a time to strengthen yourself, even after losing your job. It is a test of your faith. After all, how can your faith be proven if it is never tested in desperate moments? As the Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV):
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Your faith is not truly seen when everything is going well. It is revealed when things begin to fall apart. That is when you must stand even firmer and fight to the very end. Our God is never too weak to save. He always delivers. But the question remains: will He find faith in you?
Do not be like those who waver and fall away at the first sign of trouble, problems, or unforeseen circumstances. Don’t imitate the Israelites, who, after witnessing all the miracles God performed through Moses in Egypt, still doubted that they could conquer the Promised Land—a land God had already promised to their forefather Abraham.
After scouting the land, they gave this fearful report:
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Instead of trusting the God who had delivered them from Egypt, they focused on the giants. Doubt took over. As a result, that entire generation wandered in the wilderness for forty more years, and none of those who doubted ever entered the Promised Land.
What should you do, when life threatening scenarios or problems come your way?
There are serious consequences for doubting God after He has already spoken. If you truly believe that your God is mighty, why would you lose heart simply because a person or a problem is threatening you?
Stand tall and keep walking. God’s promises are fulfilled and proven strongest in these very moments. Desperate times are when His word shines most brightly in our lives.
The Apostle Paul received a similar word of encouragement from God while he was in prison and battling what he called a “thorn in the flesh”—a persistent problem he described as a messenger from Satan sent to buffet him. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV), God told him:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Even though Paul was in chains and faced many severe trials, God did not always remove the problems. Instead, He carried Paul through them. Sometimes the wilderness does not disappear immediately. You must walk through it and fight until you reach the Promised Land. Only faith can sustain you in that journey.
Paul fought the good fight, and the grace of the Lord carried him to the end. And so must you.
