Episode #236 Feel God’s Compassion When You’re Struggling – Small Steps, Big Faith

Hey friends, it's Jen, and welcome to Good God Talks. Today I especially want to encourage you if you're struggling. Life is full of hardship and struggles. And maybe you're navigating a prolonged season of hardship, or maybe it just feels like there's smaller complications that are messing with your day.

No matter what you're navigating right now, I feel like God wants to remind you that He sees you when you struggle.

He is not unaware of the things that you're navigating, and He is not indifferent about them either.

I know sometimes when I'm going through difficult circumstances or really hard seasons, I can wonder if God really sees what's going on.

God, do you notice? Can you see how I'm hurt? Can you do something about what's happening? God, where are you in the midst of these painful circumstances?

And God actually gives us answers to a lot of those questions all throughout the Bible. But we don't have to settle just for what the Bible tells us. We can believe the truth of scripture because the Bible is true. And we can also ask God to help us experience that truth in our day to day lives. That's one of the ways we move from head knowledge to heart knowledge about God.

It's not just knowing and believing a thing because he says it and the Bible records it, but it's knowing and believing a thing because we can see how it is true based on how he's active in our lives and in the world around us.

One of the ways that I've struggled in the past is really putting too much pressure on myself and sometimes I have felt like I've let God down.

Like I shouldn't be struggling the way I am.
Like, I should be doing better as a human, as a believer, as a leader.

And I'm continually growing in showing compassion to myself. And one of the ways that I'm growing in that is learning to recognize and receive the ways that God wants to show compassion to me.

See, God not only sees us when we struggle, he meets us in the midst of it. I'm going to read for us Psalm 103:8-14, and it says,

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14 ESV)

God sees us as we are, which includes how small and frail we are. And it also includes viewing us as a loving father who has compassion on his children.

I love how these verses make it so clear that God is not just merciful and gracious when we're doing well, but specifically when we're faltering, when we're sinning, when we're struggling.

He has the power, and he exercises his power to do something about our struggles.

He is merciful and gracious.

He chooses to be slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love.

He removes our iniquities from us and he doesn't repay us for them, but shows compassion on us as his children who fear him, who are reverent towards him.

Because He knows everything about us so personally and so intimately.

And so if you're going through a hard thing today, I want to encourage you, God sees you when you struggle, and He meets you in it. He wants to help you through it and do something about it. And so here's a question I encourage you to ask Him:

God, you know what I'm struggling with. What do you want me to know about your compassion for me?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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