Cultivating Spiritual Fortitude

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. - Hebrews 10:23

Building Spiritual Fortitude

During the past decade I’ve experienced a great deal of physical suffering. Most people don’t know the extent of it, and I won’t waste words here going into the details, but I will say that it’s required more of me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually than I ever thought possible. While I’ve definitely had my fair share of pity parties, I’ve also come to realize I can’t stay stuck in the “it isn’t fair” valley. I must somehow rise above it and keep moving forward. We all do.

The most important way I do this is to separate out what I’m going through from who God is. If I don’t, I go down a very unhealthy rabbit hole of starting to question why He would allow this, does He even love me, etc. The enemy starts chipping away, bit by bit (John 8:44), and I eventually find myself in a very dark place.

Am I going full force after healing? Absolutely. Jesus already paid the price for it (Isaiah 53:5). But here’s the thing: even if my healing is fully manifested now, another thorn will come along (be it physical, emotional, financial, etc ...), because we live in a fallen world with an enemy who constantly seeks to destroy us (John 10:10). This won’t always be our reality (Revelation 21:4), but for now it is. We can’t wait until we feel great and life is perfect to be happy with God and have a cheerful heart (Proverbs 17:22). There’s a reason we’re instructed to praise Him in the storm, not just after (Psalm 34:1).

We can cultivate this spiritual fortitude by increasing our spiritual awareness. By this I mean being very intentional about increasing our awareness of God’s character and who He really is. This means we don’t rely on how we feel but instead rely on the Word of God, prayer, and worship. I know this is not easy to do when we’re feeling lousy or life isn’t going well. I truly get it. But it’s even more important to do it then. The more we sit with Him, study Him (I find devotionals and podcasts very helpful, too), and praise Him, the more revelation we will receive about Him and from Him. Through this process we can develop a deeper understanding of our identity in Christ (John 1:12), His flawless character (Psalm 18:30), and how much He really does love us (Romans 5:8). We are then, in turn, better able to separate out the truth of who God is from our current struggles, which enables us to have right thinking (2 Corinthians 10:5) and to trust in Him (Proverbs 3:5-6).

He didn’t cause the storm, friends, but he’s right there with you in it.

Questions for Reflection:

1. I always include extra scriptural references in my devotional writing, but I especially packed this one with them to walk you through this challenging topic. I encourage you to look each scripture up and spend some time with them to get the most from this devotional.

2. Have you also had some kind of situation where you had to learn to separate out who God is from your present suffering? How did you do that? Or are you still working on it? I pray the process I shared above helps you on your journey.