March 2021

It's now a year since life began to change because of Covid and it's almost a year since I started writing this blog.

The past year has been the toughest many have ever known in their lifetime. So many emotions, concerns and situations. Some an inconvenience....

and others…traumatic and life changing.

How do we cope when we feel scared or anxious or feel overwhelmed with fear, worry, fear, sadness or grief. What props do we use to help hold us up when support is needed?

Many depend on friends or family members to get them through.

Whilst others start doing physical exercise

Or have counselling

Some try to ignore what is happening and go to their ‘happy place’,

Others turn to a religion, meditation or non religious beliefs or therapies. 

Some just hang on and hope things will get better

…. whilst others go under.

Most people need something to help prop themselves up at times, but a prop is only a temporary support

Over the last year, hundreds of  people started tuning in to online church services, hoping to find help from God and looking for answers.

But can God really help?

Do people with a faith in God have fears, worries and anxieties too?

From personal experience, the answer to both questions is yes.

So what difference does it make then to have a faith in God?

The Christian faith teaches that we’re not designed to live independently of the God who loves us, and knows the real us.

We are incomplete without Him but are often unaware that it’s Him who is missing – until we find Him.

It’s quite clear that many people, often by choice, live life without God, and do OK. They earn a good salary, have a nice home and a loving family.     

It’s easy to believe that career success, a decent bank account, good relationships, and excellent physical and mental health etc. are all that's needed in life.

These things are all good and they may make us happy, but when we face mental health challenges, relationship breakdown, financial concerns or grief, and the things that make us happy are no longer there, are the temporary props we use dependable? Are they enough, or will the roof suddenly come crashing down?

My experience is that when God is the central pillar of a life, He is part of the structure, giving strength and stability to that life. He is permanently and totally dependable and He’s never going to crumble or disappear. 

He is there in the hard times and He really does give comfort, strength, peace and hope, sometimes in a miraculous/supernatural way (and you can’t get more supernatural than God!), or sometimes He may use other human beings to bring help.

Having a faith in God doesn’t stop the fears, worries and anxieties from existing, but He does provide the resources to help deal with them. 

In the good times too, when things are going well, He gives wisdom, guidance, freedom, forgiveness and joy that isn’t dependant on circumstances.

The way God reveals himself is in Jesus, who we can actually get to know, listen to, hear from and experience the presence of… which is amazing.

 Too amazing to be true?

Revelation from God himself and a paradigm shift is needed, but once that happens and having accepted Him, that central Pillar will be in place. You’ll never have to face anything alone and life will never be the same again.

www.everystudent.com may answer some questions 

Various friends have gone through extremely difficult times this year, much tougher times than I’ve had to face. For them and for others too, this song simply reminds us that in the hard situations as well as the good times....                         

‘For this I have Jesus.’