Life can be really hard at times, REALLY HARD! And when experiencing those times, what do you do, where do you turn? As a follower of Christ I have learned over many years, including days of hardship of one sort or another, that…

God alone is the only reliable source of strength for ones’ mental, emotional and physical well-being!

As a young believer, I thought absolute obedience to the commandments of God were essential to living a fulfilled life. As I aged and experienced more difficulties, many of my own making, I gained an attitude towards God that wasn’t helpful; I began to perceive God as a demanding master who was intent on exacting flesh from me throughout my life! And if I were fortunate enough at the end of my life, I might find myself at His judgement seat pleading for His mercy! There was a constant voice in my mind repeating …”you’ll never be good enough” and “you are a worthless creature”. I tried so hard to become the best I could possibly be, much in what I believed was my own strength. But I failed time and time again to become superman!

One day when I had come to the end of my strength, I recalled a single passage of scripture that I must have heard a hundred times …”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). Once I acknowledged my failings, my sinful nature and my self reliance, and yielded my life to God that day, my attitude towards life began to change substantially. I had a spiritual awakening and began to read the Bible and was enlightened by what I read in the scriptures. I recognized truths in God’s word previously unknown to me, and my hunger for more insight grew. I began to apply the principles conveyed in the Bible, and especially in Christ’s teaching, to the way I was living and my relationships, especially as a husband, father, and employee.

Some years later, I saw a  painting depicting the poem “Footprints in the sand“, the famous poem that goes like this:

“One night I had a dream…

I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and
Across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of my life flashed before us, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life, There was only one set of footprints.

I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life
This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
You would walk with me all the way;
But I have noticed that during the
most troublesome times in my life,
There is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why in times when I
needed you the most, you should leave me.

The Lord replied, “My precious, precious
child. I love you, and I would never,
never leave you during your times of
trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”

From then on, the truth has always impressed me; it is only BY God’s grace that we can do any good thing, and thus become persons whose lives are pleasing to Him! Since discovering this truth, I have experienced many additional emotional and physical hardships, which have at times threatened to undo me. But surviving each such period, my faith and dependency on God has increased. God’s word does not promise Christians an easy life, but He does promise to never leave us or forsake us. Like St Paul I can now say…

“…I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38,39)

May God make it so for you as well!