Faith is like a muscle; trouble may strain it, but the more we use it and stretch it, the stronger it gets. David was continually hounded by his enemies. Even as he was being anointed to sit on the throne of Israel, Saul was still occupying it. But instead of losing faith in God’s promise, David declared that ‘the Lord has chosen for himself those who are loyal to him. The Lord listens when I pray to him’ (Psalm 4:3 NCV). When the Philistines captured him, he prayed, ‘There are many who fight against me, O Most High. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You’ (Psalm 56:2-3 NKJV). When he ended up in a cave fleeing from Saul’s jealous rage, he said, ‘I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by’ (Psalm 57:1 TLB). David was facing some pretty tough situations, and could have easily given up on his faith. He could have stopped trusting God, given in to despair and doubted whether God really had promised him the throne. But he chose to keep his faith through it all. We’re not guaranteed a problem-free life just because we are Christians. Jesus said we’d have problems in life; people will disappoint us, and we’ll even disappoint ourselves sometimes. But every time we choose to trust God and expect His promises to us to happen, even when it seems that everything’s going wrong or that God’s silent, we strengthen our faith. And the more we strengthen our faith, the easier it is to have faith in the next trial. The more we turn to God, even when it seems really hard, the stronger our faith will become.

What Now?

Pick a Bible verse that reminds you that you can trust God no matter what you’re facing. Write it down and keep it somewhere where you’ll read it every day.