Where Can You Go When Life Gets Tough?

Have you ever experienced a severe sense of loss or disappointment? Have you ever felt like there was nowhere to turn? Even as a Christian, have you wondered if Jesus Christ is really there for you when everything just feels too hard to bear? You desperately try to make sense of it all, to understand what is really going on. Yet, you just don’t get it.

I remember a time many years ago when I felt exactly that way. My world crashed down around me and I wondered where the Lord was…how could He allow something so devastating to happen? As I struggled, looking all around me for answers and sought to make sense of it in a desperate attempt to understand, the Lord lovingly gave me one of those Bible verses that I clung to for dear life. I still cling to it today in tough times. Let me share it with you now.

Jesus was talking to the multitudes as well as the religious leaders, telling them that He alone was the bread of life. Explaining that if they believe in Him with all their heart to the point of seemingly ingesting Him, they will receive eternal life. He said, “I am the living bread that came down for heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.”

Of course, we understand now that Jesus was saying that He was going to give His flesh and blood, His life, as the required sacrificial payment for our sin. We are freed from sin and able to spend eternity with God when we believe Jesus Christ’s death accomplished this. Only when we believe in Him and receive His sacrificial offering in our place, will we receive eternal life.   

But when spoken and heard, it appeared to the multitudes and particularly the religious leaders that he was literally telling them they had to eat His actual flesh and blood to be saved. It just made no sense to them (and sounded gruesome at that, I’m sure).

Are there times in your life when nothing seems to make sense no matter how hard you try to understand it?

Even His disciples began grumbling among themselves saying, “This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?” We are told that at this point, many of the multitudes, religious leaders and even the disciples began to wander off, no longer choosing to follow Jesus.

Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” and Simon Peter answered with words I have spoken to the Lord more times than I can number now as I walk with Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You hold the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

When you have found the truth, the answer to all life in Jesus Christ, there still are many times in life when things just don’t make sense. While He is infinite and sees everything and knows how it all works together to accomplish His purposes for our good, we are finite. And our understanding is finite. We can only see a part, a limited portion of the bigger picture.

And in those times, the only true answer to Jesus’ question is as Peter spoke, “Lord, where else can we go? Who else holds the answer? Who else knows the truth? Only You. You alone hold the words of eternal life.”

And Peter concludes with a simple statement of faith that we all must come to the place of repeating to find peace when the tough times seem too tough, “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69) In essence, we trust You because there is no one else and nowhere else where we can turn.

What do you do in these times? You trust and believe. As you continue the journey of “Your Refreshed Life,” you believe in the One who is Omniscient (the only One who knows all), Omni-present (the only One who is everywhere), and Almighty (the only One with the power to do anything about everything.) And that must be enough.

God knows. He see the big picture.  He will work everything out in ways we can’t even imagine. We can trust Him.