Why Does Life Have To Be So Hard?

That is the question I was asking myself. I was feeling the weight of an extended time of trial in my own life and a level of despair that was beyond anything I had experienced before. I learned the meaning of lying on my face and pooling my tears as I cried out to God.

David’s plea became very real to me:

“My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” Psalm 42:3

I share the details of my trials in the introduction of my book, but for now, just know that my life was hard—very, very hard!

I wanted to make sense of the cascade of calamities. I wanted to find out why God was allowing my circumstances. I wanted to find out what God’s purposes might be.

Where do you go in hard times? I knew I needed to get into God’s Word. Not as a person called to feed the faith of others, but as a desperate soul, in need of nourishment, thirsty to learn what God has to say about crushing times in the lives of His children.

What God gave me during this time of searching His Word has changed my life. This book is the written version of my discoveries. My study of Scripture uncovered powerful answers.

This is one of the many awesome things about God…He has answers! When Life Is Hard is all about providing you with God's answers. Very real, very practical answers, straight from His Word. It is exactly what I needed in my trials and it’s exactly what you need in yours.

These are just some of my discoveries:

• Five questions to ask during times of trial
• What to do when trials are rooted in failed relationships
• Practical ideas for achieving reconciliation and healing
• Choices you can make in a trial
• How joy can be a logical response to suffering
• Four common responses to suffering and why you should avoid them
• An exercise regimen to help you prepare for and grow through trials

I hope you get as much out of reading this book as I did out of writing it. I can’t wait to share with you what the Lord showed me.

Although you may struggle with feeling alone, God has not abandoned you. He is watching you closely, monitoring your situation and offering His strength when yours is gone.

When the days are the darkest, like me, you need God’s reassuring promise from Job 23:10: “But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

“When Life is Hard” will help you get the most out of your trial and discover the treasure God is refining in you.

Your life is about displaying the superiority of the life lived in God.  That’s why Christians get cancer.  That’s why Christian business men and women have bankruptcies.  The sons of the kingdom handle things differently than the sons of this world.  Go to talk to a doctor and ask him about the difference between a heartbroken parent in the hospital without Christ and a heartbroken parent in the hospital with Christ.  And right there—in that moment—that’s your chance to shine the light of the Gospel and to display the superiority of the life lived in God. –James MacDonald