God-awakening

The hardness of life is meant to turn us from self-reliance to God-reliance.

3 min read

01Read

Our emotional lives become spiritual when we experience a God-awakening—when we realize that our hard times are meant to teach us to depend on God.

Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the hard times we had in Asia Minor. We were having a lot of trouble. It was far more than we could stand. We even thought we were going to die. [9] In fact, we felt as if we were under the sentence of death. But that happened so that we would not depend on ourselves but on God. He raises the dead to life.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 NIrV

Experience changes us. As a kid, life looked easy to me. As an adult, I realize life is hard—not all the time, but any progress meets resistance. Building a life, growing up, going to school, launching a career, starting and nurturing a family—each stage is filled with obstacles and difficulties that are genuinely hard.

Obscuring every dream are obstacles that cause us to settle rather than succeed, obstacles that just feel too hard. Every day I experience “hard” or know someone who is experiencing “hard.” I’ve seen some people surrender and settle. I’ve seen others persist with relentless, tenacious determination until their dreams come true.

This leads us to a simple premise: the hardness of life is meant to turn us from self-reliance to God-reliance. When we admit that we are not okay, we acknowledge that this life is hard, but we believe that this hardness is there to help us learn to depend on God rather than ourselves.

This is what Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9: the hard times are specifically designed to break our self-reliance and teach us God-reliance.

02Reflect

Do a heart check.

The first step towards God-reliance is being honest about what we are really relying on.

The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?”
Isaiah 36:4 CSB

Where is your heart right now regarding letting God help you with what’s hard? What would it take to become more receptive and ready?

Resistant I don’t want to deal with life or anything deep right now. Admitting “I’m not okay” feels like giving up. I’m afraid to depend on God. I’d rather keep trying to handle things myself than risk being vulnerable with God about how hard things really are.
Reflective I’m not sure where I’m at right now. I know I’m struggling, but I don’t know if I’m relying on myself or God. I need help figuring out what God-reliance actually looks like in my daily hard times.
Receptive I’m ready to admit life is too hard to handle alone. I want to learn what it feels like to rely on God instead of just relying on myself. I’m tired of surviving and ready for a breakthrough.
Ready I’m done pretending I can do this alone. I’m ready to make the shift from self-reliance to God-reliance. I just need to experience what it feels like to depend on him when life gets hard.

It takes courage to admit where you really are—whether you’re exhausted from self-reliance, afraid to depend on God, confused about what dependence means, or ready to finally let him help. God already knows.

03Act

Name what’s hard.

Morning prayer:
Instead of starting with what you need to accomplish today, start by naming what’s hard. Tell God the three hardest things you’re facing right now. Don’t use religious language; just name them honestly: “God, here’s what’s hard: [1]…, [2]…, [3]… I can’t do this alone. I need you.”

Evening:
Pray, write, or talk with a friend: Did I bring today’s hard things to God first, or did I try to handle them myself? What was different when I started with God?

04Go deeper

God-awakening

Do a heart check.

Name what’s hard.

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