Honor the Hard. Greatness is Born in Difficult Seasons.

Hey Friend!

How many of you are going through something hard right now? Something that feels really heavy? It may feel difficult, scary, maybe even impossible. How many of you are trying to grow your business but it doesn’t really seem to be taking off and you wonder ‘Is it working? Is it worth it?’

Maybe your fears are spiraling around raising your kids in this fallen place. Maybe you’re wondering when Jesus is going to come and take us home because it’s all just too much. Hard is here and I don’t believe that it is going to get any easier. I think that just like Esther, we were born for a time such as this. But that doesn’t mean that it makes it easy for us. It doesn’t mean that just because we were born for this season, our mind doesn’t spiral and that our hearts don’t yearn for home.

Today, we are looking at how we can honor the hard even when it feels like it’s a lot and how we can find the inspiration, the belief and the conviction that greatness is born from the most difficult seasons.

Testimony – A Way Out of Her Difficult Season

Oh, my soul. I absolutely stinking love you. And I cannot wait to dive deeper. I’m going to take the Clarify Your Calling course because I feel such a connection. And I have been searching for so long for someone to help me figure out what in the world God wants me to do because I cannot seem to get there myself, which I hate, but that’s the way it is.

So, I’m so excited to be introduced to you and to get started and oh my gosh, I can’t wait. I am going to buy that course right now because I cannot wait to dive deeper with you and I just love your soul. I love your work. And I thank you so much. God has truly gifted you. I can hear it. I can hear it when you speak to other people. And I just think it’s amazing and if we all stepped into our Kingdom gifts the way you have stepped into yours, what a difference it would make in the world. So I cannot wait. I cannot wait to get there. Thank you so much for all that you do and I will continue to listen. I love you so much.

Danielle

Are You in a Difficult Season?

I share that testimony with you today because maybe this episode finds you in a place of confusion. You are not sure about what you are supposed to do. Or you hear me talking about starting a podcast but you don’t even know what it would be about. You might be confused about your calling and unsure of what the direction of your business is meant to be. It is hard for you to discern what are God’s ideas and what are your ideas.

If this is you, then join Danielle in Clarify Your Calling. This is my entry course that helps you get super clear on your brand partnered with Him so that you can move forward in actually creating a podcast, a business and a brand. All the details about Clarify Your Calling can be found at stefaniegass.com/school. I’ve got all three steps of my school there for you. Or you can head straight to clarifyyourcallingcourse.com.

The Biblical Take On Difficult Seasons

It is important to remember that greatness, goodness, worthiness, amazingness always come from the hardest places and from the most difficult seasons. They come from the places where we are struggling the most. It is easy to feel discouraged when you’re in that season because it is uncomfortable. It is really uncomfortable to face challenges or trials and to sit in these places and spaces where you’re wondering when you are going to be on the other side of this.

We need to always look to the Bible because it is God’s word and God’s word is the truth. The Bible is where we can consistently look for truth and for peace no matter what our circumstance is. And when we look to the Bible, we find that there are countless people who have gone before us who have had to persevere through adversity, who have had to struggle and trust in God in these really incredible ways.

And on the other side of their struggle were amazing anointing, kingships and saving of souls for Christ. When you look at the incredible outcomes of people who have gone through adversity, you can really be encouraged that you are probably in exactly the right place. So let’s go ahead and dig in to honoring the hard. I just want you for a moment to place your hand on your heart and let’s say a quick prayer.

A Prayer for Encouragement in the Hard

Lord, I pray that this will reach a place and a space in the heart of you, the person reading it, where God will pour some fresh encouragement and a fresh wind over your perseverance. That He will reframe your mind and your thoughts around sitting in the messy middle, in the hard place and the difficult season that you might be sitting in today, and just lovingly remind and encourage you that greatness is being created and crafted right now. That when you persevere through the trials and tribulations you will find joy. James 1v2-4.

And Lord, I just pray that you will use me as a beacon of light and salt and truth today to continue to inspire and motivate every single one of your Kingdom sons and daughters to keep pushing forward, to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Because together we are completely unstoppable. Everything is impossible without you, Lord. But today, right here and now, it is possible because you are partnered with us in this journey. You are partnered with us in our businesses.

Open our mouths and you shall fill them, Lord. We receive that. We proclaim yes and amen to your guidance on this journey and I just ask that we will be here with you through the work, through the hard, and that you will bless that obedience and that discipline, that consistency and our efforts and we know that you will and that you do and in Jesus mighty name we pray.

Amen.

There Is a Reason for Our Difficult Seasons

Let’s talk a little bit about the purpose of hardship, the purpose of hard things.

James 1v2-4 says Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

These verses say ‘When you face trials of many kinds.’ We are promised that we are going to face hard things. And then it says to consider that joy. So, when you are sitting in a trial, consider it joy. You might say ‘Lord, thank you for this trial. I am so grateful for this. I am so excited that I get to walk through this with you. Why? Because it is testing my faith. It is testing my trust in you. It is growing my dependence on God.’

Finding Joy and Maturity in the Hard

When we are confused and scared and unequipped, everything is fragile and we have to lean on God. And when we create dependence on Him, it grows and amplifies our trust, our surrender and hopefully our discipline, believing that God is going to get us out of this thing. And the verse says let perseverance finish its work.

So, allow yourself to sit in the discomfort. Be willing to lean in and rest on God through this hard thing because it says that when you are done, you will be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

How incredible to know that when we come out of the hard thing, we find joy in it. We trust in God through it that we are going to be more mature because of it. We’re going to be able to see more clearly. We are going to be able to weather more difficult storms in the future. And we are going to be even more complete.

We Will Be Made New and Will Grow

Remember the verse that talks about being made new? I believe that this has so much to do with it. I am a completely new person. The second that I recommitted my faith to the Lord, I had this rebirth, being dropped into the Holy Spirit and washed. I was 30 or 31 and I was made new, on fire for the Lord. But I was a baby Christian and I was immature in my faith. I was casting stones and on a bit of a pedestal, thinking I knew everything.

Eight and a half years later, I have learnt that I am growing in my own faith. I am growing in my understanding of what it means to be a Christian. I am becoming much more loving and much less judgmental, more welcoming and compassionate. But all of these had to come from eight and a half years of the testing of my faith in so many different seasons and so many different occasions and experiences. So now I am becoming more mature. I am becoming more complete in this new person that the Holy Spirit is helping me become.

So, I just want you to wear that Bible verse today that you will have hardship. You will experience difficult situations but they are going to give you the chance to develop your Holy Spirit led character. They are going to give you lessons that you would not have had otherwise. And they are going to help you become more complete in what God is calling you to become.

The Power of Persevering in Our Difficult Seasons

When you first start reading the Bible and start with the New Testament, you get to the story of Job and you have so many questions for God about Job and you feel so bad for him! And then, of course, you get to the story of Paul the Apostle. In 2 Corinthians 4v7-10, Paul writes Even when we are afflicted, we are not crushed because we carry within us the treasure of Christ’s resurrection. Through Christ’s strength, we can persevere even through the toughest situations.

We Are Not Crushed but Are More Able to Fight the Enemy

So even though we are afflicted, even though we are attacked, even though there are stones being cast at us or there are bumps in the road, we are still here. We are not crushed. We are on this side of heaven right now for a reason. There is a divine appointing and anointing over your life. You were born for a time such as this. The call on your life is not by accident, and the enemy knows it. And so you have got a target on your back, like it or not.

That is why we face trials. Not just because this world is fallen. That is part of it. But because God allows it so that we can become stronger. We can become more resilient and resistant so that we can keep fighting. And we can keep rising and taking more and more ground back from the enemy. But we have to be strong enough to be able to do this.

Experiencing Difficult Seasons Moves Us Closer to Victory

If you think about an army as an analogy, a brand-new person enlists in the army. They are new and green. Maybe they talk a big game. They come out, suit up and go through a couple of training camps. And then they are placed in a battle of some kind. Are they not going to be fearful? They are going to be completely terrified and might hide for the first few hours or days!

Then you get a person who has been in the army for ten years. They are experienced. This person has already gone through a handful of battles so they have all this tactical equipment and strategy. And they just go for it because they know that the sooner they get out there and control the situation and win, the sooner they get to go home to their family. Or the sooner they get to go out and take on new territory.

We are exactly the same way. Your calling is the same as this. You are fighting to reign in your Kingdom authority in the space that God has placed you, to be crowned victorious in this space. But you have got to earn that. You have got to grow into your Kingdom capacity. And that is going to take trial. It is going to take training. It is going to take some losses so that you can learn from them.

Perseverance Is Key to Growth

That is exactly what happened to Paul and all the other people in scripture that I have mentioned. We can really see and learn from these stories in the Bible that perseverance is absolutely key to growth. And staying motivated in the face of these adversities to keep showing up is going to help you. You’ve got to lean into your faith and stop looking at the fear because the fear is just simply going to take you out. It’s going to derail you and it’s going to keep you right where you are. You’ve got to lean into that faith place.

I remember so many verses where David cried out to the Lord praying, weeping and surrendering to Him. David leaned on God through every single adversity and trial and God continuously gave him what he needed to take the next right step. I think this is just the most beautiful example of all of this.

Rely on God in the Difficult Seasons

It is hard. Get used to it. It is going to get harder. Welcome it. The hardest things have not even come your way yet. Armor up for it. It’s all scripturally there for us. If we can lean on those truths, we can be more equipped.

When we are struggling, it is easy to think that we can just rely on ourselves. How many of you are a closet control freak? Or like me, you are outwardly a control freak! But when we look at 2 Corinthians 12v7-10, it is often through our weaknesses that God’s grace shines through most clearly because we have to really look at the gift of grace then.

When we rely on God fully, when we are surrendered and open, when we recognize that it is hard and feel like we are failing and we acknowledge that we need his help, we tap into a source of strength that surpasses anything we could do on our own. It surpasses anything that this world has to offer or any mindset hack or affirmation.

Truly partnering with God gives us the reliance on Him that we really need to take us to that next level. It really invites grace into our lives in such a beautiful way because God’s grace allows us to feel a deep sense of humility. We realize that we can’t do it without Him and that we absolutely must have His support.

God’s Heart Is Good

When we look at what God’s heart is for us, I think that it is to support us, to lift us up, to encourage and enlighten us. It is to guide and mentor and to be a father and a friend and a counsellor. To be everything we need at all times. And we tap into His grace by telling Him that we need Him which is imperative in the season of hard.

I don’t know a day that isn’t hard in some sense. There is always something, no matter how small it might be. When we get into the practice of surrendering that tiny thing, when the big thing comes, when the really big season is here, you are so practiced in crying out to the Lord, in relying on Him, in hearing from Him that it is easy.

Success on the Other Side of Difficult Seasons

The last thing I want to talk about on this topic is how we turn our hard or our struggle into opportunities for success. I don’t want us to constantly sit in the hard place and just be there for the hard. There is a reason that we walk through these seasons and I believe that it is for God’s glory. It is for us to reign victorious through Him and to share with other people the good news of Jesus Christ.

Fo every hard thing we go through, there is a testimony on the other side of it and that is really why we are all here. Our purpose in this world and in this life is to glorify God through our testimonies and in sharing the good news. And God has us all do that in very different ways. There is no pressure around this. God will show you when and if that opportunity arises for you, and in what capacity, but that is the real reason we are all here. However, I do believe that our calling and the way that we can help others is based on our individual giftings and the things that God has equipped us each with differ.

Be In Excited Anticipation of What He Is Doing in the Hard Seasons

In Romans 8v28, we are told that God works all things together for the good for those who love him and are called according to His purpose. So, when we keep pushing through the challenges, the hard things, the difficult seasons, and we keep our eyes on God’s promises, we can live in excited anticipation of what He is doing in these. We can find joy in the messy middle. We can experience incredible growth and often we can achieve great things.

I think of King David and Psalms 18 where we hear that David relied on the Lord and he reigned victorious. He overcame Saul and his army. David chased them down until they were defeated. Even after giving David this victory, God keeps going and He appoints David as the leader of nations. This is just how God is. There is no setback that will not be rewarded with some kind of Kingdom success.

Leaving a Legacy From Our Trials

Maybe this success is not something we experience this side of heaven. Maybe it is something that is generationally passed down. There is a legacy win that our children get to experience. But 100% of the time, in God’s incredible timing, there is some type of victory or success that comes from the struggle and we just have to remember that this is coming. There is a breakthrough that is waiting for each and every one of our trials and our hard seasons if we stay steadfast and continue to partner with him.

Honor the Hard and You Will Overcome

So, to wrap up, hard things are a way of life. They will not get easier. But because we have to walk through these things does not make us weak or mean defeat. It actually means victory for us. When we honor the hard things, we tap into God’s strength and our own inner strength through the Holy Spirit.

And we grow. We get better. And stronger. We stay focused on that big incredible call that God has for our lives and we emerge from these difficult situations stronger and more resilient than ever before. Remember that God is for you and that He is good every day. You will overcome this hard thing and you will grow and you will look back and say ‘I am so glad I pushed through!’

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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