Sound of Surviving Blog

I used to often wonder how people can be so joyful and still praise God, even when they’ve faced and are still facing endless challenges in their lives. That is until I, too, faced my own set of challenges. Perhaps, maybe, it’s because when you have everything else stripped away, you are more able to tune into God, and focus on him and his love. And I do think that when we are tuned into God, and his voice, and his love, we focus less on the things that the rest of the world zooms in on, like the hardships and the struggles, and the pain. For those of us who have faced multiple hardships know, if we focus on the good things, our family, our friends, our home, we can continue to praise him for these things, even when life gets tough. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul reminds us, “Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” We are called to praise God, not just in the good times, or the easy times, but amid the painful times, and the suffering we endure here on earth. Why? Because as Christians, we know that sorrow may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning. We know that our God, who will never leave our side, even when we can’t see him, and his kingdom, waiting for us, are far greater than anything that this world has to offer; this includes the things we can see those around us enjoying, that we would love to partake in, but can’t, due to physical or unseen challenges. There are lyrics that I love from Mandisa, in her song, “Press On”, which state, “Through the broken, through the victory, I will praise You through it all, and run hard ’til the race is done; I, I’m gonna press on, press on”. There are a lot of days where, just getting dressed in the morning, I have to continually say to myself, “It’s okay, you got this”, as I battle through fatigue, and many mornings where I just want to call it quits and go back to bed. But if I focus on the good and on God, I can push through, and this makes me thank him and praise him that much more, as I go through my day, for not letting me give up earlier, so that I was able to experience all the good he’s placed throughout my day; things such as my nephew’s laughter, or talks with my mom, or the smiles on the patient’s faces where I volunteer. If we just keep pushing on and praising him all the way long, we will see that it will all be worth it in the end.