When an international crisis as serious as the COVID-19 pandemic comes along, it seems like people do one of two things: grow stronger in their faith or lose it.
Faith during hard times is difficult to maintain even for the strongest of believers. However, while it’s tempting to walk away from faith when times are hard and the world doesn’t make sense, these can also be the times when your faith can grow its strongest.
We believe faith is an integral part of a happy, healthy, holistic lifestyle. Take a look at some tips that can help you find faith during hard times like the COVID-19 crisis.
Recognize when you want to give up on faith
The first step to not giving up on faith is to recognize when you feel like you want to give up on faith. Don’t hide from your feelings or bury them. Acknowledge to yourself that you’re struggling to believe in or trust in God.
It’s OK. This is not a sin, and God will appreciate your honesty more than dishonest groveling.
Once you’ve admitted your struggles to yourself (and to God), you’ve created the space to work on growing stronger in your faith and healing.
Explore peaceful practices
Once you recognize that you’re struggling with faith during hard times, you need to create some spaces for peace. Establishing a peaceful practice, such as reading, resting or meditating, can help ground your contentment and open up your eyes to the bigger picture outside of your struggles.
Trust in the Lord
Even when you don’t want to, you should try taking your struggles to God and placing them at His feet. You might not believe in the point of doing this when you feel so hopeless, but Jesus believes in it. He wants you to take your burdens, worries and concerns to Him, even when you’re doubting Him.
You may be surprised at how He acts in your life when you open yourself up to Him.
Turn to your friends and family
You are never alone when you’re struggling with hard times. You should find people you are comfortable trusting and turning to for counsel and comfort during hard times. Do you not have family or friends you can trust? You’re still not alone. You can always find someone in a local faith community or reach out to us at Unfiltered Radio for help finding a community.
Listen to Unfiltered Radio to discover what it’s like to try to be an authentic follower of Jesus in the modern world
At Unfiltered Radio, we’re all about exploring what it means to authentically follow Jesus and wrestle with the hard questions in life. Check out our podcast to listen to daily episodes about personal growth, spiritual growth and talking about hard questions about God.