3 Encouragements for a Painful Season of Life

We all go through challenging times. Sometimes we are fully aware of our pain, and other times we may even downplay what's happening to us. For me, it was the latter. I completely underestimated what was happening to me. At the time, I don’t think I could have fully understood the immense pain of what it means to leave your entire life behind for an uncertain future.  Before this time, pain had become my home, and I expected myself to survive this one, too.

I soon realised that this was a different type of pain; it was not just my pain, it was the pain of my entire family. I wanted to mask my pain, but the reality that nothing about our lives felt normal continued to linger. The hardest part for me was watching the kids struggle. I was leaving an abusive marriage, and I also had an expectation that leaving meant freedom from the things that once had me bound. But I would quickly find out that even freedom came at a price, and with it came many battles.

This was in no doubt a wilderness season for us, and as we navigated it, I continued to find hope and refuge in Jesus. The Bible says in Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. So, even though externally our lives looked defeated, in Christ Jesus, our circumstances are not the determinants of where we stand positionally. Because of Jesus in our lives, we are always on the side of victory, no matter what.

The same Romans 8 continues by telling us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Though trials and tribulations may come, God's love for us remains our anchor in the difficult times and our hope for a better tomorrow.

One of the greatest lessons from these times is that I learned to shut out all external means of help and focus on looking to Jesus, my helper. Psalm 121:1-2 says that “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help, my help comes from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth”. I found a depth of God's love that you experience when you reach out to God in difficult times, one I would have been unable to access any other way. 

There are three encouragements I want to leave you with if you find yourself in a wilderness season of your own. The wilderness season can be a very disorienting time. We sometimes expect these seasons to pass through our lives speedily. But what do you do when they linger?

The Bible encourages us in Romans 5:3: “we rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance”. This means that suffering in Christ is not a wasteful experience; you can rejoice in knowing that there is purpose behind every suffering.

Secondly, the wilderness season helps to focus our minds on Christ Jesus as our firm foundation. Anything else that we put our trust in will be shaky ground that can be easily swept off. The only place we can put all our hope and not be disappointed is in God. 

The third encouragement is that no matter what you are going through, remember that you are not forsaken. Romans 5:2 says, “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed”. The Bible also says in 2 Corinthians 4:17, "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever”.

You see, when you are in Christ Jesus and walking according to His will for your life, even suffering can produce glory. So, find comfort in knowing that your suffering will not last very long, and your suffering is producing glory for the kingdom of God.

In conclusion, it is in these wilderness seasons that God reveals Himself to you as a provider, a protector, a father, a lover, a friend, and a place of safety. It is in these times that you get to seek God's face and find Him, and He makes His presence known to you. Remember that God is always working all things together for your good and making ways for you where there seems to be no way.