I’ve noticed that when life gets overwhelming, it can be easy to feel spiritually drained. I’m trying to grow and stay consistent in my walk with God. How do you personally stay grounded during hard times?
Looking back over my personal spiritual journey, I see that those times I felt God was the furthest away were times He was actually closest. From my imperfect human perspective, it feels like God "comes and goes". The truth is God's love is constant and it is my love for God that increases and decreases as I struggle with who I am, what I want and my control of my life.
I really resonate with this. I used to rely heavily on my 'spiritual feelings' to drive my prayer life, but when stress hit and those feelings evaporated, my faith felt like it was crumbling. What changed it for me was shifting from intensity to consistency.
When life is chaotic, I can't always summon the mental energy for a deep 30-minute study. Instead, I rely on 'anchors' throughout the day. I try to stop for just 60 seconds at set times (morning, noon, evening) to re-align. It’s almost mechanical at first, but it creates a structure that holds me up when I'm too tired to hold myself up.
Go to church, receive the Lord's Supper and the absolution. These remind me that God is always there ready to forgive and give His means of grace, even when I'm not feelin' it. If I were to rely on my feelings to validate God's love for me, I'd be in rough shape sometimes. It's better to look outside myself and know what God has done and is doing. And being among other believers who are doing the same reinforces that too.
I know what you mean! We always want to serve God by our own strength. God lets that fail so have to rely on Jesus. We live by his strength.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. - Phil 4:13
• When I am feeling a lot of emotional burdens, playing worship music tends to help.
• I talk to Jesus about how I'm feeling and lean on Him.
• Sometimes quoting a certain scripture helps me a lot. If you don't have some of your favorite scriptures memorized, then reading them aloud will have the same effect.
• If you don't normally listen to audio Bible, that might be helpful as well.
When I'm going through trials I tend to rely on Jesus more because I'm aware of my weakness & insufficiency.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.
Is 40:29-31
I'm sorry to hear you are feeling burdened. I pray that Jesus gives you the strength you need to overcome what you are going through.
It’s simple, reminding myself I have to come back to God‘s word in prayer. It might sound very simple, but that’s all that’s needed for me.
That might not make things go away or make things easier, but they give me the strength to get through them.
I get up early every morning pray and read my Bible. There are mornings when I do not feel like it or feel that I deserve to be in the presence of the Lord. But I pray and read anyways, and I am always always blessed.
My mom says something that's always stuck with me. "Everything happens for a reason". When I was younger and bad things happened or I was going through a hard time, I didn't understand. Got angry. Thought it was pointless.
But I'm older now and I see every hardship came with a lesson. A lesson I was grateful to learn in the end, even if it was hard. I call it "God's tough love". For instance I've been dealing with a concussion I got back in February this year which I still have difficulties from. But even though it was financially stressful, it forced me to slow down and focus on healing myself physically, mentally and spiritually. It's forced me to connect with my family better. It's forced me to stop dating so frivolously and really think deeper about what I want. All of these outcomes have been positive impacts in my life, despite the hardships of my injury. It's God's roundabout way of helping me focus on what's important. And to remind me to be more careful too, to prevent bad injuries!
I think about Jesus in the garden.
Looking back over my personal spiritual journey, I see that those times I felt God was the furthest away were times He was actually closest. From my imperfect human perspective, it feels like God "comes and goes". The truth is God's love is constant and it is my love for God that increases and decreases as I struggle with who I am, what I want and my control of my life.
I really resonate with this. I used to rely heavily on my 'spiritual feelings' to drive my prayer life, but when stress hit and those feelings evaporated, my faith felt like it was crumbling. What changed it for me was shifting from intensity to consistency.
When life is chaotic, I can't always summon the mental energy for a deep 30-minute study. Instead, I rely on 'anchors' throughout the day. I try to stop for just 60 seconds at set times (morning, noon, evening) to re-align. It’s almost mechanical at first, but it creates a structure that holds me up when I'm too tired to hold myself up.
Go to church, receive the Lord's Supper and the absolution. These remind me that God is always there ready to forgive and give His means of grace, even when I'm not feelin' it. If I were to rely on my feelings to validate God's love for me, I'd be in rough shape sometimes. It's better to look outside myself and know what God has done and is doing. And being among other believers who are doing the same reinforces that too.
I praise more. I sing more. I pray and tell God what’s going on and how I feel about it not because He doesn’t know but because He’s Dad and He cares.
I know what you mean! We always want to serve God by our own strength. God lets that fail so have to rely on Jesus. We live by his strength.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. - Phil 4:13
• When I am feeling a lot of emotional burdens, playing worship music tends to help.
• I talk to Jesus about how I'm feeling and lean on Him.
• Sometimes quoting a certain scripture helps me a lot. If you don't have some of your favorite scriptures memorized, then reading them aloud will have the same effect.
• If you don't normally listen to audio Bible, that might be helpful as well.
When I'm going through trials I tend to rely on Jesus more because I'm aware of my weakness & insufficiency.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.
Is 40:29-31
I'm sorry to hear you are feeling burdened. I pray that Jesus gives you the strength you need to overcome what you are going through.
You know in your heart that God has the victory and that we have been called to His Son to share in that victory.
It’s simple, reminding myself I have to come back to God‘s word in prayer. It might sound very simple, but that’s all that’s needed for me.
That might not make things go away or make things easier, but they give me the strength to get through them.
I get up early every morning pray and read my Bible. There are mornings when I do not feel like it or feel that I deserve to be in the presence of the Lord. But I pray and read anyways, and I am always always blessed.
It's not easy. I just pray to God about everything constantly. I feel relieved and I see my prayers answered.
Turn on praise and worship music. Free Apps like Spotify have awesome libraries of music like 2026 top Christian songs.
Psalm 42:8: "By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life."
I look at the world around me and see that the presence of God is constant like the universe. It is I who's inconsistent.
From personal experience, hardship is used by God to draw the faithful closer.
Read the word daily.
https://archive.org/details/the-violence-of-demanded-hope-a-response-to-entering-the-kingdom-of-heaven
I think about the hardships Job, David, Daniel and Joseph endured, and how God eventually exalted them.
I look at it as God testing me, causing to my faith to get stronger. Hebrews 12:6 straight up tells us he disciplines the one who he loves.
My mom says something that's always stuck with me. "Everything happens for a reason". When I was younger and bad things happened or I was going through a hard time, I didn't understand. Got angry. Thought it was pointless.
But I'm older now and I see every hardship came with a lesson. A lesson I was grateful to learn in the end, even if it was hard. I call it "God's tough love". For instance I've been dealing with a concussion I got back in February this year which I still have difficulties from. But even though it was financially stressful, it forced me to slow down and focus on healing myself physically, mentally and spiritually. It's forced me to connect with my family better. It's forced me to stop dating so frivolously and really think deeper about what I want. All of these outcomes have been positive impacts in my life, despite the hardships of my injury. It's God's roundabout way of helping me focus on what's important. And to remind me to be more careful too, to prevent bad injuries!
Alot of prayer