How Can We Keep Our True Faith in God When Life’s Burdens Are Heavy?

We often encounter all kinds of difficulties which can cause us to lose faith in God. Some people face repeated failure in job hunting despite making prayers to God; some face financial constraints in life because of losing their jobs; some get sick and don’t know how to deal with it…. All these things make them lose faith in God. So how can we gain true faith in God? The Bible says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

God says, “What does this word, ‘faith,’ refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work does not align with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of. People are in need of faith during times of hardship and refinement, and faith is something that is followed by refinement; refinement and faith cannot be separated. No matter how God works, and no matter your environment, you are able to pursue life and seek the truth, and seek knowledge of God’s work, and have an understanding of His actions, and you are able to act according to the truth. Doing so is what it is to have true faith, and doing so shows that you have not lost faith in God. You can only have true faith in God if you are able to persist in pursuing the truth through refinement, if you are able to truly love God and do not develop doubts about Him, if no matter what He does you still practice the truth to satisfy Him, and if you are able to seek in the depths for His will and be considerate of His will.”

From God’s words, we can see that we can only have true faith in God if we are able to have a heart that fears God and obeys God, to seek to understand God’s will and maintain our devotion to God despite hardships or refinement, setbacks or failures, or other environments that are out of line with our notions.

Take Job as an example. Job lost all of his possessions and his children within a single day, and after that became completely covered in boils. However, Job didn’t utter a single word of complaint to God, and he even prostrated himself in worship of God’s name. He could do so because God had a place in his heart, he believed that all events and all things are in God’s hands, and all those conditions he faced had God’s approval. Meanwhile, Job was possessed of the sense of a creature of God. He believed that his riches had all been bestowed by God and that if God wanted to take away his wealth, that was natural and right. Thus, Job could keep his faith in God and completely obey God when he encountered such great trials.

Therefore, when we face painful things or hardships, as long as we pray to God, seek God’s will and keep our faith in God, God will resolve our problems and settle our concerns. Even if we can’t see God’s deeds after praying, we should still completely believe without any doubt what God has done and what He has said, and seek God’s will with a heart of obedience. Only in this way can true faith in God develops.