Are you going through a trial in your life that you do not feel another soul on earth can fully understand? Maybe you want to explain your struggle to others so they can relate, but there are no words that you can use that would allow them to be able to understand. You do not want their sympathy, you just want them to understand how hard it is and how awesome God is that He is carrying you one day at a time through your lonesome journey. You want it to be for something, but it does not seem like it is, because you are experiencing it all alone. You feel alone even in a crowded room.

During some of the hardest trials in my life, I have felt alone. Don’t get me wrong. My family and friends have more than been there for me. But there has been a depth to the hurt that I wanted to share with them and I could not. No matter how hard I tried to explain it, and no matter how hard they tried to get it, they could not.

I am convinced that some of the trials in our lives are not meant for others to experience, they are just for us. Each of our lives are riddled with trials, hardships and circumstances that truly others cannot understand. I know you have been there too. Maybe you are there now.

Never doubt that God is with you, and He is always working in your trials.

1. God understands. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.” Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” He knows what it is like to be set apart. He was sinless and probably was picked on a lot for it as a child. Also, he was not embraced as the Savior by His own brothers. He lived a life where no one could possibly understand what He was going through. He is God after all and we are not. He gets us.
2. God grows us. In the Prayer of Jabez, 1 Chronicles 4:10, the Bible says, “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! …” And God granted his request. ” I believe that when God enlarges our territory, He usually starts by enlarging us on the inside. I guess we had better be careful what we ask for, because when He enlarges us on the inside, it can be quite painful. I have learned that one first hand. I have prayed the Jabez Prayer and God has painfully stretched me beyond my borders using the trials in my life. Through our trials, He is preparing us and growing us toward the greater work that He has planned for our lives. Have you thought that maybe your trial is growing you toward something?
3. God draws us near. God is all about relationship, and sometimes He keeps His work in my life just between me and Him, at least in the short term. Sometimes He sets us apart. During times when He has set me apart, I have sensed His presence like never before. I have cried out to Him like no time in the past. I have grown closest to Him and have seen Him as my dearest friend and spent more time with Him daily. I have learned to trust Him more in my suffering than at any other time in my life. Has He set you apart? Is God drawing you closer? When we find He is all we have, we find He is all we need.
4. God does His perfect work in us. Suffering is less about getting perfect comfort from others, as it is about the Comforter doing a “perfect work” in our hearts. (Sheila Gosney) Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5) Do you feel differently after a trial? Like a different person? God comforts us so we can comfort others. He gives a new compassion for others when we go through hard times. He is equipping us for witnessing to others about His goodness.
5. God cares. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7) Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55:22) He always cares about us, but never can we feel His love more than when He is carrying us through our trials.

Dear Lord: Thank You for holding us and loving us through our trials and for answering our prayers. Thank You for understanding us like no one else can, for growing us, for drawing us near, and doing Your perfect work in our lives. Please bring us safely through each of our trials in Your time after You have done Your work in us. And may we come out of them better off and more rooted in You than when we went in, trusting You more and being better equipped to share Your love with others. Amen

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3

Do you have a favorite verse or a favorite book to encourage someone going through hard times? Or a story about how God got you through an impossible situation? Please share hope, prayers and encouragement by replying below.

Thank you for reading and sharing my blogpost today. May God carry you safely through every trial and comfort and strengthen you with His peace, love, and grace. He understands like no one else can.