Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you’re already surrounded by problems and pressures that are left over from the night before?

You may be overwhelmed with needs, uncertainty, hurt, burdens, to-do lists and regrets and you haven’t even thrown back the covers yet.

What if the strength you’re searching for is in you already and you just can’t see it yet?

As long as your focus stays fixated on the issues and obstacles, you’ll miss the opportunity to let courage control your thoughts.

The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, has already gone before every one of your battles and equipped you with armor you’ll need for the attacks coming.

And He’s bracing you from behind too. He’s got your back.

Your struggle is less about your own maturity and more about what you believe.

Your help is here. Your supply is here. Your strength is here.

Can you see it?

Though you’re tired by all the trouble, close your eyes and rub the seeds of doubt and disbelief from the corners of your mind. Now look again. Let your gaze fall upon the hills, where your help is mounted up and surrounding the very things that surround you.

It would be nice if God’s help was to keep us from hardships and prevent the problems from ever happening in the first place. But let’s be honest. As long as you strain hard enough, your success will point to your own efforts.

Pride tells us we have all the power and strength and there is no purpose for faith or trusting in a God we can’t see. Yet, the scriptures are stacked with stories rooted in human weakness, soaked in the supernatural strength of God.

Allow your problems to humble you, refine you, and use you more effectively. The places where we are pressed can most likely be where God wants us to plant hope. Compassion permeates from our pain.

You have a Defender who will deliver you with the very thing the devil meant to destroy you. When the enemy has a strategy to take you out, God always has a plan to keep you in and moving forward.

Let God pummel the enemy by bringing so much good from the bad that Satan will regret ever having taken you to that wilderness in the first place.

God wants to show you His faithfulness through your failures and strengthen you through the struggles.

But you may have to see it through your weakness.

So look again! There is potential in your problems and purpose through your pain. You can have confidence in the chaos and confusion. God downpours a great supply in the drought of your need.

You can’t control the circumstance but you can believe in a Father who loves you… still. In the darkest of hours, He is the supply of strength standing on a ground of grace.

Keep trusting. He’s already given you all you need.

It’s our faith that activates God’s power. If you’ve been standing and believing for a while, don’t give up! Press through. Keep praying. Keep asking. Keep seeking, and He’ll meet your faith with favor and His miraculous power.

Often times we’re surprised by our struggles. We can even be caught off guard when it’s the same stuff we’ve been wrestling with for so long. We give the enemy credit for being clever when he throws the same punch to our weak spots. Why?

What if we weren’t surprised?

What if we really did come to expect these kinds of ordeals, not as pessimists but as the prepared?

What if we did come to expect that life was going to push us with pressure?

What if we were ready in advance for things like temptation and oppression?

Plant your feet solid and bend your knees to brace your body for the impact, because I’m warning you from the Word, its coming. If you’re not prepared when the push comes, you will be shoved into a sinkhole of despair.

Let us not be prepared for only the pressures but also for the divine power.

Although we feel alone in our afflictions, I’m here to remind you we’re all in this together. As the persecutions mount and the pressures pound, remember God has already given us victory through Jesus. None of these struggles and trouble will be wasted. They will all work out for our good. We are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Romans 8:37). Our perseverance will be rewarded (Hebrews 10:35)

Therefore, my dear [friend], be… immovable” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

I pray that God opens your eyes so that you may see the strength that is already in you. Keep an open and humble heart so that His peace can help you press through to pain and find its purpose and His plan.