How To Stand Firm In Your Faith Even When You Feel Down

Sometimes, it’s hard to admit that you are feeling down.

You know the saying “misery loves company”

Well, while I would agree that may be true…

what I think is more true and maybe more needed right now is honest vulnerability.

So today, if you are in need of encouragement in the form of simply knowing you are not alone in having a hard week...

this is for you.

If perhaps it may make you feel better to connect with someone else’s words when they say:

“It’s been a really hard week.”

“I’m having a tough time.”

or

“I’m just out of sorts.”

“I feel down.”

or

“I don’t feel like myself.”

Then…I am your girl.

Because friend…I think it is so so critically important to maintain life lines that don’t pump out the “I’m fine, everything is fine” line when you are not.

Because the truth is…sometimes Instagram and facebook don’t tell you the whole story.

I know…a complete shocker right?

Sometimes, feelings are complicated, days are wobbly and minds are muddled.

Sometimes…we need help feeling back to ourselves…the question is;

Do we know where to go to get it?

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

psalm 121:1-4 Niv

I always find it so reassuring that God never sleeps – don’t you?

Surely, part of my feeling down this week is due to the fact that 3 out of 5 of us are finishing our COVID quarantine after testing positive 10 days ago. It’s been a bummer and honestly last Friday I struggled to write and publish the Home Tour blog post. But, God is good and sustained me with the strength to show up.

And even more of a praise, all in all, we have been fortunate with moderate cases.

But more than anything…I have been just plain down.

Maybe you have had days, weeks or even months where you feel off.

This one step forward, two steps back week after a long year has been one of those times for me.

Mostly, because we made the immediate decision to isolate ourselves from our younger two daughters in order to keep them healthy. While I am deeply grateful for the help of my Mom who has kept our two youngest girls at her home for the last 10 days…(cue the Grandma Superhero award) the separation, lack of snuggles and touch has been hard on everyone.

My emotions have stirred up many reflections to early feelings we were all sifting through at this time one year ago. In fact, I went back to re-read this blog post, “Soul Endurance in a Mental Marathon,” that I wrote exactly a year ago when we were all buckling up for this mental marathon and this post about life going off-script.

All that to say…I want you to know that your version of hard,

your gray day,

your routine run off the road,

your dailyness disrupted,

your usual happy self…suffocated…

you can take it all to the One who understands it all.

Because even dark days have boundaries.

And –

When we find ourselves in a disappointing place…remember, there are promises in play you can trust.

So what do we do when we are feeling off?

First and foremost, if you are “not feeling like yourself” or sadness lasts more than 2 weeks I highly recommend talking to your doctor about how you are feeling. Your doctor can make recommendations for you and help you put a plan in place to feeling back to your normal self. I know because I did this in 2005 and am grateful for the help I received back then along with the help of counseling or “talk-therapy.”

However, in present day today…I know that my right now feelings are due to Covid brain, fatigue as well as missing my youngest daughters terribly which we will thankfully be reunited with soon…both are situational and temporary.

Differentiating between these two types of down are very important.

This week, in this temporary state of down, the mantra “This too shall pass” has been heavily leaned on during rainy, dreary and tired days.

But friend…even in temporary down days, when we pull back the curtain of life and the forecast still shows that things are heavy out there…it’s difficult.

I see you.

From the heartaches in Colorado, to Atlanta, to Philadelphia in just one week.

From finding your own reset and then perhaps that same reset experiences an upset.

To absorbing worries of family and sponging up the spillover of emotional effects, but your soul sponge is already sopping.

Whatever the thing or things that are touching the tripwires in your heart and causing a short circuit…I just want you to know…

you are not alone.

Let me say that again.

You Are Not ALONE.

I think…actually I know, that when you are down…

it can be down-right hard to do the things that are good for you, that you know will lift you up...

Remember, God works His best stuff inside the dark.

Friend…while it’s too easy and trite an answer to say: do them anyway.

I will say: Ask God to help you do them anyway.

When you feel down, your body will tempt you and tell you everything it can to keep you staying down.

That’s why it is so important to bring God’s voice into the process of getting back up.

I have written about it before here in this blog post...but writing God’s Word and putting letters to the page of His Promises is so undeniably helpful when you are having a dark day.

In fact in this blog post I share how writing one scripture a day for just 5 minutes can help soothe your soul in the everydays.

I don’t know about you…but I think maybe we all hoped that we would be a little more out of the woods with this stuff than we are now.

Do you know what else trips me up that I think might trip you up too sometimes?

Thankfully, I don’t waste time comparing myself to other people…

But?

I do find myself comparing myself to the Mom or wife I was last week, last month or this time last year.

This was a mental battle this week.

I kept having these thoughts that I was doing a better job at this Covid-Mom thing last year at this time than I am this week.

In fact, our oldest daughter will turn 12 on Tuesday and I do not have a thing planned for her. Last year though at this time? I already had her birthday presents ordered, arriving on time and oh yeah I helped the Easter bunny out with his shopping list.

I was ON IT.

So this week when the thoughts of

“What’s wrong with you?”

“You don’t have this done?!”

“You don’t have this figured out?!”

and

“Why haven’t you done this yet?”

all popped off in my head…I remembered who the real enemy is.

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

1 Peter 5:8-9 NLT Emphasis added.

There is a real enemy out there friend…and he is super skilled at finding the tiniest cracks in your mortar of flesh and slithering right through the brain waves…all in an attempt to take you down.

This is your reminder to STAND FIRM against him and be strong in your faith friend.

A few ways I stand firm in my faith are:

Through my daily Quiet Time in the morning, putting God first in order of my day every day. (Try downloading the You Version Bible app to your phone -it’s a great way to start your day in the Bible.)

Listening to praise and worship songs (If you’re local – tune into 95.1 Shine FM)

Tuning into virtual church and yes…writing His Word down in my journal.

Yesterday, I asked Eve if she wanted to join me in writing Romans 15:13.

I especially love this version of the scripture verse.

“Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!”

Romans 15:13 TPT

You can use a daily devotional book to read every day and then write the scripture verse from the day down in your journal. What really helps my mind to fight off the enemy’s LIES is to add a little drawing to the verse.

You can simply google the scripture verse and add “bible journal image” to your search query and you will find beautiful images to inspire you to find something to draw yourself that coordinates with the verse.

Bible journaling helps me stay in the Here and Now of the present.

Here and Now.

The gift of Here and Now is so simple yet so life-giving when we chose to submit and yield to the moment we are in the middle of…

letting go of our performances of yesterdays and

our worries of the not-yet’s.

Friend, I almost didn’t write today because I am raw, tired emotional…but when we bring whatever we are packing out of the dark and into the light…God lightens our load and I’m hopeful that this message brings you encouragement on what may be a down day for you.

I pray that if you have had an off week, a down day, a not your usual self string of seconds…that you take heart in knowing…not a single one of us on this Earth is crushing this human thing.

Not a single of us has every i dotted and t crossed…but there is the One who went to the Cross who you can take it all to and know that even dark days have boundaries because of His blood.

Keep looking up my friend…this too shall pass.

Father God,

You are the Prince of Peace. There is no one like you.

I lay everything down that burdens me because I know that trusting You is the best decision I can make every day. I admit that sometimes when I feel down the last thing I want to do is pray.

Thank you for drawing me back to you through your Word. Please help me to fix my eyes on you and give me a deep desire to spend more time with you.

Amen.

Living on a prayer,

Heather

We are abundantly grateful to our many friends who have loved up on us so sweetly over these last 10 days. We feel supremely blessed to have you in our lives. Friends help in beautiful ways when you feel down too. XO