When It Feels Like All of Hell Has Come Against You

As we grapple with the magnitude of the Maui fires and the losses of physical, material, and cultural life, we find ourselves on the mainland with excessive heat, hurricanes, tropical storms, and the erratic uncertainty of our economy. Today, our younger generations experience anxiety at an all-time high, and the levels of drug abuse and even suicide are overwhelming. Post-COVID statistics reveal that pastors are at a very high level of burnout – many seeking an exit plan versus an action plan. Leadership, Christian leadership, is not for the faint of heart. The pressure is unimaginable, and for us, as their wives, ministry life can be and often is the loneliest place on the planet. We can sometimes identify with Job’s wife when she walks out to find her husband on a pile of broken pottery, sitting among the ashes and scraping his boils. Do you remember her? (For further understanding, read Job 1-2.)

We find her in the Book of Job, written 4,000 years ago in a land where women were not always honored for who they were. However, Job’s wife’s life was of great position, possession, and pride. Her husband not only loved his God, but he loved her and their children. As the Bible says, he was “…. blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.” These first two verses are compelling. They set the stage for the life and story of a man, his wife, and his family. The following few verses reveal that Job has seven sons and three daughters.

Then, one day, while they were living life as they knew it–everything changed. Has this ever happened to you? Life-changing moments. Sometimes, it seems the devil and all of hell have come against us. The trials and suffering don’t make sense! How we navigate these moments will make a difference in how we survive and not give up. 

Come along with me for the next several weeks as we consider what it will take for God’s woman not to give up. The following are points to ponder. I have learned these throughout the years. I still need to revisit them myself, and I pray they will be helpful to you.

Take a deep breath. Suffering is going to come. 

When we, as women, embrace this fact, we will learn not to be taken so off guard by the enemy when he comes at us with yet another scheme or temptation to throw in the towel.

Living brings extreme blessings and extreme trials. As maturing believers, we encounter various trials. (James 1:2-4) We know from the Word of God that trials come as a way of testing and purifying our faith. We know that with trials come suffering, but American Christianity has an underlying teaching: We shouldn’t suffer if we follow closely and obey the Lord in all things. 

When suffering comes to a friend or a loved one, we have all the answers, but when suffering comes to us – we wail as loudly or even louder as the person to whom we have just given counsel. In Second Timothy chapter three verse twelve, the Bible says, “For those who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution.” Paul, the writer of most of our New Testament, knew about suffering. In Philippians chapter three, verse ten, he wrote, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

God does not play favorites. 

We need to understand every person on this planet will experience suffering. There is not anything any of us can do to change that. He knows He is doing a work in us far beyond the actual trial and suffering. (Matthew 5:45-48) If left undone, we will never reach our full potential in Christ. In the book of James, he reminds us to … “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Suffering itself is not the issue – getting through it God’s way and letting him work in and through you is!

Life experience cannot be our plumb line for how we will face our sufferings and trials. 

We must get into the Word of God and stop using our past experiences, how we handled those situations, what social media influencers say, or what our best friends have advises to guide our response to suffering. We must be in prayer, seeking God with our whole hearts as we pass through some of the most challenging days of our lives. Wrestle it out girls with the One who sees and knows you better than anyone on this planet!

I cannot rely on these trials and suffering to be my plumb line of who my God is. Christ and the power of His Word must be the reason that I choose to live every day. To know my Father and to make Him known should be my goal in life. Nothing else matters. I have not always done the right thing. I have made many mistakes. I have not been still or silent. I have chosen wrongly in my attitudes and my, actions and reactions. I do not know if God and Satan had a conversation about my family or me in heaven, but I do know that through some of my most difficult days, God’s Word has sustained me. It has been the balm of Gilead. God has been my Deliverer. God has been my Provider. He has been my Shield. He has been my Hope.

So, are you ready to complete the journey, ladies? Let’s go deeper into our relationship with God. I want to be a woman who will teach others how to live and then how to die.