Scriptures to Get You Through a Difficult Holiday Season
This year has left all of us facing some level of hardship in our lives. It can be easy to feel beaten down by the current state of our world. Thankfully, as the body of Christ, we have been promised a better life after this one. On days when we are struggling to find light amid the dark and hope amid the pain, we have God and His Word to depend on for peace and strength to get us through difficulty. I know when I faced my own horrific “shipwreck”, God was the only reason I was able to make it through.
The Bible can infuse us with the confidence we need to continue to press through in these trying times. If you find yourself struggling, I encourage you to meditate on the following verses, and even to challenge yourself to memorize them. You might also send these to a loved one who could use extra encouragement right now:
2 Corinthians 4:8-9, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed."
As Christians, we are told that we will face adversity in this world. God never promised us an easy life, but He did promise He would take care of us in this life and the next. So even when we are feeling defeated by the things going on in our lives, we can remember that we are not forgotten by God and He will see us through.
At times, especially as some of us are quarantined or isolated due to sickness, we may feel alone, but the Lord promises that we are never forsaken or forgotten.
Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
This verse is one of many about God's faithfulness to us. There is an abundance of unknowns in our world today, and that can be a scary thing to think about. We may not know what tomorrow or even the next hour will bring, but we have confidence that the Lord is right by our side through it all.
This is an especially powerful verse to pray over those who may be battling sickness right now or are praying for their loved one in the hospital. When fear settles in, it can easily distract us from the truth and make us feel even more alone. Putting this verse at the forefront of our minds while we are in the middle of one of life’s storms can help us to keep our head up from one difficult moment to the next.
Psalm 50:15, "and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
God is our greatest ally, and prayer is our strongest weapon. We will continue to work through trials, but thankfully, we have the blessing of prayer, the ability to talk to God through every step in our journeys.
Oftentimes, we can slip into the bad habit of asking for prayer without praying ourselves or complaining about our problems more than we ask God to help us through them. While grumbling might feel good for a moment, true peace and joy come from putting our trust in the Lord by lifting up our requests in prayer and knowing that He is in control. And when others see the peace we have from God even in the face of our worst trials, that is a witness to others as they see the power of God working within us, and brings glory to God.
Especially as Christmas nears and we navigate a less than ideal holiday season, I think we can draw spiritual strength not only from these verses but also from the example of one biblical figure who modeled resilience perhaps better than anyone: Mary, the mother of Jesus.
She was asked to carry out the crucial task of mothering the Savior, all while being a young teenager, by most scholarly estimates. Not only that, but she faced the public scrutiny of being pregnant outside of marriage. She could have easily told the Lord to pick someone else for the job and become preoccupied with what everyone else was thinking about her. But Mary kept her gaze fixated on the Lord, and even while she walked through the difficulty of being a young pregnant woman to the dismay of many of her neighbors, she never let those circumstances take her away from depending on God.
Like Mary and many other biblical heroes of the faith, we have everything we need to survive a trial of life through God’s Word and our faith in Jesus Christ. The promise of the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with Him should be a comfort to us all! What a gift God has given to us as believers!