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How Can I Endure My Faith During Hard Times?

Zephanian 3:17

You are God's masterpiece, and He has given you His word as a testimony to the

love and joy He has for you. Zephaniah 3:17 says: "The Lord your God in your

midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will

quiet you with His Love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

God rejoices over you, though He knows you are in the process of becoming all

that He has planned for you to become. You are not yet what you will be when

you step into the eternal presence of God (1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2). Until that

time, God is patiently molding and shaping you into the image of His Son.

You never have a reason to give up (Gal. 6:9). You are not alone! Jesus is with

you, cheering you on to victory. He is at your side to strengthen and encourage

you. When you fix your eyes on Him and not on your circumstances, you will

begin to see life differently. Instead of thinking negatively, the Holy Spirit will

teach you to think about the things God, pure thoughts that honor Jesus Christ.

God has pledged over and over to love you. He walks with you through

disappointment and is never disillusioned by your wayward acts. He has seen

the Finished portrait! While on your own you can do nothing, He knows that

through Christ you can and will succeed (Phil. 1:6; 4:13)

This does not mean that you won't suffer or feel pain. Jesus endured both, and

yet He did not give up. He knew that in order to complete His mission He would

have to endure until the end, and He wanted more than anything else to

accomplish the Father's will.

How could He possibly bear the wight of all our sins and still remain victorious?

God had given Him an eternal perspective. Long before it happened, Jesus saw

the resurrection as a completed fact (Matt. 20:18, 19). And after three days, He

rose again from the grave to walk in victory. God gives you such victory through

the presence of the Holy Spirit.

You can walk in victory because Jesus is your example and His Spirit lives in

you. Like colors on an artist's palette, God uses every frustration, fear, feeling of

hopelessness, and even temptation to bring you closer to Himself