“When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your comforts delight me.” Psalm 94:19 AMP

The roller coaster of life can become seriously tiring. Imagine you’re riding along at the beginning of a good coaster ride, the click-click-click of the car on the tracks loud in your ears as you slowly ascend to the top. You’re aware that the purpose for the climb is to experience the rapid decent awaiting you over the crest of the hill, and it’s the anticipation of that simulated free-fall that you simultaneously long for and dread. I remember riding Space Mountain at Disneyland with my dad when I was a little kid, and I recall spending most of the ride screaming at the top of my lungs. I also remember the exhilaration I felt at the speed and unexpected twists and turns made in almost total darkness.

It’s not like that in life, is it? Yes, we feel the click-click-click as we climb the hills of life, and I’ve started to understand that, instead of having dual emotions of excitement and dread, we tend to maintain a feeling of dread only. Many of us feel, especially when things are going well, that there is another shoe ready to drop on top of our heads as soon as we let down our guard and start enjoying the moment. The problem with this is that we end up feeling a sense of angst all the time, whether we are in the middle of a storm or sailing along on smooth waters in anticipation of a storm that we can’t even see yet.

What we are instructed to do is lay own our worries about any of it…the storms, the free-falls, the ups and downs. Having true faith and trust in God and His love for us is easy, in theory. We can be solid in our faith on an intellectual level, and yet our emotions still get the best of us at times. Practically speaking, if God is by our side (which is where He resides at ALL times), then whatever comes our way will be handled. We don’t have to carry the weight of anything alone, because no matter when our strength begins to run out, our Heavenly Father is already carrying us and anything that comes along with us.

Let me give you a visual…there is a dad walking along with his young child. The dad is 6ft 5in and 250lbs, strong and fit. The child is 4 years old, and a very tiny version of the big man walking beside him. The child is carrying a bag with a few belongings, and though it’s not exactly a heavy bag, over time it becomes heavier and heavier to the child, because the child is getting tired from all the walking. Soon, the little one just can’t take another step and his bag drops to the ground. Without missing a beat, the dad reaches down and picks up his exhausted kid, bag and all, and continues on down the road home. That is how it is with our Father. He’s always walking right with us, ready and able to pick us up and bear our weight for as long as necessary. All we have to do is let Him know we’re tired, then let Him carry us until we’ve gotten our strength back.

“Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in.” Galatians 6:9 AMP

This morning, as I was waking up at my usual 5am to get ready for another long day at work, I made my way through the dark to our bathroom and climbed into the shower. As is my way, I left the lights off (there is enough light coming through our skylight to allow me to function in semi-darkness) and stood under the hot water trying to get my mind to wake up. Initially, I was overwhelmed by negative thoughts and emotions. I was standing there thinking, “I can’t do this. I just can’t do this.” The day ahead felt enormous and I absolutely could not see a way to get through it. But then I started to pray.

I told God that I didn’t have the strength to get through the day. I told Him I just couldn’t carry the weight of my struggles today. I asked Him to take them from me, and every time I try to take them back, I begged Him to keep me from picking them up again. As I continued to pray, not only for myself, but also for those that I love, I realized that I didn’t have to have the strength to get through the day. It settled in my heart that God has carried me through every single day of my life, both good and bad, easy and hard, and today would be no different.

Whenever you are faced with hard days and struggles (which will be more often than not), please remember that getting through doesn’t rely on your strength because you have the strength of God ALWAYS at your back. It is when we fall into the trap of believing we must get through on our own that we experience the pain and heartbreak of our humanity, as opposed to the joy and peace of faith in a loving Heavenly Father.

“But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 AMP