Trusting Jesus When Life Gets Harder

Verse of the week

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

The risen Jesus knows what faithfulness is costing you.

Sometimes the hardest part of a difficult week is thinking about next week. You have managed what is in front of you. You are less certain you can manage what might come after it. At night, your mind gets busy preparing for conversations that haven’t happened and losses you hope you will never have to face.

We would like faith to settle those questions. If we pray and try to do what is right, surely the road ought to become a little easier. When it gets harder, we start examining ourselves for the mistake that explains it. Or we wonder whether following Jesus is making any difference at all.

The church in Smyrna received a letter from Jesus without a word of rebuke. He knew their affliction and their poverty. He knew what people were saying about them. Their hardship was not evidence that he had overlooked them or that their faith had failed.

Then he told them more suffering was coming. Some would be imprisoned. His call to be faithful reached even to the point of death. We should let the seriousness of those words stand. Jesus did not promise this church that obedience would produce a comfortable life.

He had already told them who was speaking: the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. The Lord asking them to endure had entered death himself. He was alive as he addressed them. His promise of life carried the authority of his resurrection.

That changes how we measure a hard season. A situation can deteriorate while a Christian remains deeply loved by Christ. You can be exhausted and still be faithful. You can need help from other people without having disappointed God. Smyrna looked poor, and Jesus called them rich.

There is a danger in asking tomorrow’s imagined trouble to tell us what Jesus is like. Fear supplies a picture of the future with no room in it for his care. We see ourselves facing everything alone. His letter gives us a different starting point: the living Lord knows his people and has promised them life beyond death.

What are you afraid will happen next? Name it in prayer as plainly as you can. You do not need to pretend the possible loss is small. Then read the opening of the letter again. Ask Jesus to help you trust the One who died and came to life, while you do what faithfulness requires today.

That may include asking a trusted believer to pray with you or help you carry a practical burden. You do not have to solve the whole future before you tell the truth, keep a promise, or care for someone. Jesus knows the cost of today’s obedience. The life he promises his people reaches beyond the worst outcome we can imagine. We can entrust tomorrow to him.