God’s Comfort When Life’s Inextricably Hard

Some weeks you’ll struggle,

Many days will be hard,

But pray for wisdom to wait them out,

God’s comfort in you to guard.

There are those moments, feeling betwixt and between, foreigners even in our own homes and workplaces, where anxiety rails and panic besets us in an inconsolable torment. A moment, an hour, several hours, or a day. We’re found in an impossible place.

The truth is life won’t always be this way. It might be easy to say life won’t always be this hard. But struggles can rarely fit so neatly into a quantitative comparison. Another truth is struggles are part of life, and our opportunity is to learn — to bear, to endure, to create joy, to be honest about what we feel, and principally, to share our burden. Life won’t always be like this, because we’re constantly learning and adapting.

Getting stuck inside anxiety is like being wedged in a place that refuses to be open to learning — where learning is somehow too hard, too humbling, too loathsome. But learning truly is joy if we go there by faith.

Anxiousness is a terrible condition, because we cannot for the life of us determine where to start in bringing it to an end. But that’s only as it seems. If, on a good day, we’re willing to explore the causes and consequences of our anxiety, God will guide us through that little journey. And confidence will build.

But on days when we’re sharply challenged, we rest in the comfort of God which is the affirmation of his loving words, the imagined gentle touch of his Spirit, and quality time in his Presence, just being.

God is a comforter and a guide. He is one and the same God. He knows what we’re dealing with and his comfort and guidance are synonymous with our every need.

Most of all, in these moments of great personal risk, God is our guard; our gardener. He will care for every part of us as if all our foliage were visible to him. He prunes gently, and shapes with loving intent. He cares for our health, wanting us green and lush. God knows when we’re stressed and he’ll do all he can to restore us to health.

Hope: for a different time coming; different challenges and different opportunities.

Some moments are veritably tenuous,

Many moments away we’ll shy,

God’s help will help when life’s strenuous,

Bring God into times when you sigh.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.