How To Move Through Suffering And Come Back StrongerSample

Donna Gibbs:  How to Move Through Suffering and Come Back Stronger Devotional Day 3

A Change in Perspective

Scripture: Psalm 19:14

To build resilience, we must clean up repetitive, destructive thoughts about ourselves, about God, about others, and about our situations. You may find that when you are struggling most, you fixate on thoughts such as: 

God isn’t helping me. 

I can’t take another day of this. 

I will never be able to experience anything good in life again. 

No one understands.

This is awful. I’ll never get through this. I can’t handle this.

I am a horrible person. 

Building resilience requires replacing false thoughts with truthful ones. When we wage this war, we consciously direct our thinking, and with hard work, we replace our automatic, destructive thoughts with thoughts of hope, truth, gratitude, and sometimes even mindful gratitude.  Transforming our thinking is how we bounce back from life’s hurts and build resilience. Notice that we are doing nothing with our circumstances themselves. We are addressing our perspectives and our thoughts regarding the circumstances. 

When I hear the word resilience, I immediately think of a bouncy ball. When you throw a bouncy ball onto the floor, it bounces back higher than its starting point. The harder you throw it down, the higher it bounces in reaction. The resilience of the ball defies gravity. 

Can it be so with our hurts in life as well? Is it possible for our tragedies to propel us to bounce back? Could we ultimately spring back in better shape than we were before we were slammed to the ground? Absolutely! Friend, you too can bounce back. I know you can, because I know the God Who can lead you to resilience! 

Of course, God works according to His timeline, not ours. He is a process-oriented healer, walking us through our hurts and our healing rather than around them or away from them. Will you trust Him to begin taking you through your pain? It’s time to bounce back. Give yourself the privilege of that opportunity. Just because you’ve been stuck doesn’t mean you have to stay there. God will bring blessings out of your curses. He wants you to bounce back. 

What destructive thoughts tend to come to your mind often? What do they suggest about how you think about yourself? What positive thoughts could you replace them with?