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Hope in Tough Times
Many of us consider fasting only when times are truly tough, when we or our loved ones face suffering. David fasted for days while his child was deathly ill. Jesus expected people to fast (“when you fast…”) and not to wallow in self-pity or draw attention to ourselves. He wanted our nonverbal communication to express trust in God, even if we’re fasting while in distress.
God knows we’ll have trouble and pain and uses our suffering to produce perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-4). The Father allows us to persevere under our trials (James 1:12) because he loves us so deeply—demonstrated by his sending his son, as Eugene Petersen renders Romans 5:8 in The Message, “while we were of no use whatever to him.”
In Philip Yancey’s book, Where Is God When It Hurts, he notes that Dr. Paul Brand, in his medical work with lepers, studied how they unconsciously wounded themselves because their nerves are largely numb to pain. Yancey writes, “Pain is not God’s great goof. The sensation of pain is a gift—the gift that nobody wants.”
The unseen Father, who sees us and knows what we need, feels our pain. He wants his children to hope in him during our trials and build hope through them. Bring your struggles to him today—and skip a meal, if it helps you focus on him.
About this Plan
Times are tough. Anxiety can grow inside us like a contagion as we battle external stress and internal doubt. Jesus knew that the better we know our Father, the less reason we’ll have to be anxious. In Matthew 6, Jesus draws us back to our Father, the One who sees us, knows our needs, and provides hope.
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