Finding Joy in Trusting God During Hard Times — It Was Never Your Burden to Carry
- meetgodattheedgeof
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
John 15:9–11
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
Joy.
Some days it feels like there just isn't a lot to be joyful about. “This is going wrong. That blew up in my face.” It’s discouraging when you are trying to be obedient, yet things seem to go south.
How in the world do you find joy in that?
How can you count it all joy?
Let’s just say I’ve been forced into a refresher course.
For us to understand finding joy in trusting God during hard times, we first need to understand why we see certain things as losses in the first place.
Losing a job can feel like a major setback, especially when you have a family that you think depends on your provision. The reality is the only reason this feels like such a loss is if we relied on it too much—if we placed our trust in regular paychecks instead of in God.
As we know, trust placed anywhere but in God is misplaced.
Our families never had to rely on us to provide. Every good thing we receive is a gift from our Heavenly Father, not our hard work or skill. After all, who gave you that skill in the first place?
Accepting and surrendering to the understanding that God provides everything we need is where the joy of the Lord exists. This realization is so freeing. What a load off my shoulders.
My Heavenly Father gives us what we need. I just need to trust that He will do what He says.
He has never let me down.
He has never lied to me.
Not one time in my obedience to the Lord have I been abandoned by Him.
So yes—count this situation all joy.
It’s not your problem.
It’s not even a problem.
Much of our lack of joy or hope is actually rooted in a lack of faith. But when we begin finding joy in trusting God during hard times, we realize something powerful: the weight we were carrying was never ours to begin with.
Jesus told us to remain in His love so that His joy would fill us and overflow from us. That joy isn’t based on circumstances. It comes from trusting the One who holds every circumstance in His hands.
To experience the joy the Lord promises, we have to live according to His plan for our lives.
Imagine that.
I pray this encourages you to live by faith and truly experience the joy and hope the Lord wants for you.
Thank you, Father, for one more day. Amen.
James 1:2-4
[2] Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. [3] For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. [4] So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
