Why God Uses The Hard Moments To Draw Us Closer To Him

I wish I knew why bad things had to happen. Why it feels like we reach a certain point and then fall. Why we’re so happy one second, and the next feel like we’re spiraling down, like there’s nowhere else to go but lower and lower.

I wish I knew how to come to terms with brokenness, how to release pain and find some kind of healing. How to be someone who lets burdens fall off her back and walk with the hope that no matter what happens, she will be okay.

But being that kind of woman is hard. Being that kind of person is hard. Life is hard. And no matter what beauty we try to cultivate, what joy we try to bring, what peace we let seep into our lives and the lives of others, this world will bring us storms and pain.

I wish it didn’t happen that way. I wish we could just be good and have good things come to us. I wish we could love and laugh and never experience loneliness, or heartbreak, or death, or closed doors. But the steps we take are a part of this imperfect journey. We are humans navigating this sinful earth, searching and finding our way. We are not meant to live lives that never change, never break, never grow, never rebuild.

We are supposed to experience things that hurt—to shape us, to teach us, to help us value what we do have, to bring us closer to ourselves, to the people around us, to God. And to know that we are never, ever alone.

Sometimes God uses the tough moments to bring us back to Him. Perhaps we’ve lost sight of who we are. Perhaps we’ve been wandering with selfish, empty hearts. Perhaps we’ve been trying to control all that happens with our own two hands, instead of leaning on Him, instead of letting ourselves be led. Perhaps there is no rhyme or reason, but our Father is calling out to us in our pain, begging us to connect with Him.

Sometimes God uses the tough moments to shape our direction. Maybe the road we were on was a terrible one. Maybe we were leaning too deeply on a person who would eventually leave, or chasing love in the wrong places. Maybe we were letting ourselves be the center of the universe, living without true purpose or hope, but all of this disguised by temporary things.

Sometimes God uses the tough moments to teach us. That we do not have to exist here on our own. That we should never carry burdens without help. That we are infinitely valuable, even when we don’t believe or see this worth.

We tend to have this perspective on life that we’ll achieve perfection if we just try harder, love deeper, give more. But no matter what we do, or say, or how passionately we share ourselves with others, bad things are inevitable. And that is not to say that being a good person is not worth it, but to remind us that escaping from pain is impossible—and yet we still have hope—in our Father’s love.

Pain will happen, but feeling alone and weak and empty doesn’t have to. Because Jesus has carried our pain for us; all we must do is accept this love and walk in His ways.

Sometimes we’ll have moments were everything feels off, where nothing is right, where we’re spinning in circles, dizzy and confused. We’ll want to quit. We’ll want to run. We’ll want to chase anything that makes us feel light, even for a moment. We’ll put our hearts into temporary things, hoping to be filled.

But the truth of God’s love is that He longs to fill us. He wants to give us peace where there’s chaos, joy where there’s exhaustion, healing where there’s brokenness. He wants to help us begin again, find our footing, continue forward in the wake of what’s gone wrong.

He longs to bring us back to Him, to hope again.

Sometimes God uses the tough moments to reveal His unconditional love. A promise that even when the world fails, when we fall, when things change or break or get destroyed, He is here. And never leaving.

Sometimes God uses the tough moments to show us that we will be okay. It just takes time, trust, and faith.

All things pass, but His love remains.