There will be seasons of difficulty and problems for all of us who live on fallen planet Earth. More often than not, as we find ourselves in the middle of hardships, our thoughts and emotions lean toward pessimistic feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and fear; with a sense of being overwhelmed. At times like these, even though God tells us He is able to bring good out of difficulty, it can be a challenge to grasp this truth. Let’s look at King David as an example: He had a bad day, in fact he called it the “day of my calamity”. Then if that wasn’t enough those who were against him, added insult to injury, by stirring up more chaos in his life, but even though spiritual and physical enemies were coming against him; David knew God had a plan to bring him to a better, larger place of spiritual maturity. Thus King David stated that in the day of his calamity, “the Lord was my stay.” In other words, David said that in the middle of the mess, the Lord was his place to run, his place to stay for a time and find release, relief, and rest. In God’s presence, David poured out his overwhelmed heart and received help, hope, faith, joy, and love, therefore transporting himself to a bigger spiritual place than he had known before. So let’s not waste our troubles, but let us allow God to use them as a catalyst to turn us toward Him and bring us spiritual growth. When we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances, we must remember; God is on our side…He is for us not against us! The Lord wants to enlarge our hearts, so we will have the ability to abide and walk in a love, peace, joy, and intimacy with Him that will surpass our greatest expectations!

“They came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth into a larger place” (2 Samuel 22:19-20a).