The Dona Watson Show

3 Strategies for Facing Hardship with Hope

• Dona Watson • Season 3 • Episode 2

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Listen to today's episode to gain three strategies I've been using for the past several years to navigate the challenges of life while remaining optimistic and strong in my relationship with God.

Warrior Queen Book Bundle Link: https://shop.warriorqueenonline.com/wq-bookbundle   

Video version of this devotional: https://youtu.be/wsPFLmR-0nY 



Speaker 00:

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Dona Watson Show. I'm your host, Dona Watson.

Speaker 00:

Hello, everybody. Today, I'm going to teach you three strategies to help you face hardship and remain full of hope, able to tackle life with intention and a deep faith.

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Now I've used these strategies for the past several years to navigate challenges of life while remaining optimistic and strong in my faith with God. And I'm really excited to be able to bring this to you because it's my goal that by the end of this video, you will have renewed strength and recommitment and a stronger faith in God.

Speaker 00:

I want you to strengthen your faith too. Because, you know, life is hard and everybody seems to want to take the easy road these days, but many are never able to keep a positive mindset because they're not willing to do the work that's necessary in order to live with intention. We have to set our minds ahead of time to be intentional that we are going to trust God no matter what happens. To have a fully fulfilling life, you need to do the work.

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Think of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. They were not born to be good basketball players. They did the work. They had intent. They had a goal. And they did the reps. They practiced. And that's what we need to do, even in our Christian walk, to have the intent and the goals and to practice so that we become strong in our faith. It doesn't happen by accident.

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So that's why I'm really glad that you've landed on my channel. By the time you get to the end of this, you will have a new life, faith, or reinforced tools that will help you to stand strong, to stay positive, and to strengthen your relationship with God. Because when you live with intention, you will shine like the diamond that you are.

Speaker 00:

So we're going to start our story in the Bible, from 2 Samuel, there's this dude with a really weird name. His name was Mephibosheth. I'm going to try to get through this episode without stumbling on his name. So in 1 Samuel, we see that King Saul and his sons were slain in a battle against the Philistines. And when they were slain, that paved the road for David to become king of all Israel.

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And when he came into his full power and things started to settle down, he started to look around for anyone who might be surviving from King Saul's household. And he was a good friend of Saul's son, Jonathan. And so he wanted to find any remaining relatives for Jonathan's sake to show kindness to them. So he asks his servants, and they said, well, there is a family servant from Saul's household. His name is Ziba. He says, bring him. Let's ask him.

Speaker 00:

So they brought Ziba in, and they asked him, are there any remaining relatives? And he says, well, yes. Jonathan had a son. He's lame in both feet, and he's living in another city in someone's house. He's still alive. His name is Mephibosheth. So David summons Mephibosheth to come to Jerusalem and appear before him.

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Now, can you only imagine what must have been going through Mephibosheth's mind. His entire family had been slain. The kingship went to another family, and he was probably hiding out, is my guess. The Bible doesn't say that. He was in another man's house. And he comes and he falls face down to pay homage to David. He was probably scared to death.

Speaker 00:

He was in a really tough position. He lived in a harsh world. And when most new kings came to power in that world... they would automatically execute anyone from the previous family, the previous royal family, or whoever had been in power, so that there would be no more threats to their throne. So Mephibosheth, he had a family, the Bible says, he had a family to care for. He was lame in both feet, probably difficult to make income, living in a borrowed house under someone else's roof. Once he had been royalty, but now he was an outcast and probably hiding, probably afraid for his life. And when David summoned him, I can only imagine that Mephibosheth thought, here it comes. My worst fears are being realized. Here it comes. But he had no choice. So he comes to Jerusalem. He throws himself down in front of David.

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Let's read 2 Samuel 9, verses 7 and 8. "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "since I intend to show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all your grandfather Saul's fields, and you will always eat meals at my table. Mephibosheth paid homage and said, "What is your servant that you take an interest in a dead dog like me?"

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What does David say? Don't be afraid, David said to him, since I intend to show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I will restore to you all your grandfather Saul's fields, and you will always eat meals at my table. Mephibosheth paid homage and said, what is your servant that you take an interest in a dead dog like me? Mephibosheth didn't have a very high opinion of himself, did he? But he didn't have anything to fear. David said, don't be afraid. I'm not going to kill you. And then he gives to Mephibosheth everything that had belonged to Saul. He gave him the farm. He gave him the servants to take care of the farm, which would have given him the ability for income. Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants that worked for him. And David assigned all of those to work the land for Mephibosheth so that he would have income.

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But not only that, David also told him, but you get to stay in Jerusalem and you're going to eat at my table and like one of my sons. He honored him for Jonathan's sake and had him stay in Jerusalem. He gave him property, he gave him income, and he gave him a seat at the king's table. He would always be provided for.

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And when I read this story, it was like a little microcosm of how quickly things can change in our lives unexpectedly, you know? We face a lot of hardship in our lives. The test is how are we going to deal with that hardship?

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So there are three things that I want you to remember when facing hardship. And the first one is that difficulties happen. Life is hard. This is true, but it will pass. Life is like seasons. The ebb and flow of life keeps us on our toes, but things happen. It throws things our way that we don't expect. Mephibosheth knew the truth of this statement. He didn't do anything that put him in this terrible position of being an outcast and hiding for his life. But God saw him and God smiled on him and he said, you're going to be okay. But he didn't know that yet. He didn't know that yet.

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Life is really chaotic for all of us these days. There are a lot of things that we don't know. But life is like a season. It ebbs and it flows. And this too shall pass. Hard times don't last forever. That's the first thing we need to remember.

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The second thing that we need to remember is that God always provides for his children. God can turn things around in an instant. Well, at least it seems like an instant to us. But the truth of the matter is, God is always working on our behalf behind the scenes. He's working on deals and provisions and things that we don't know anything about. We may never know anything about, but he's always working out for our good. Romans 8.28 says, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

Speaker 00:

That's the truth of the matter. What might look like a challenge to us now, God can turn around for our good. That's what it says. And the scripture says in several places, "Don't worry." That's because God's got your back. You are on his radar. He sees you. He knows what you're going through. And nothing happens to us that surprises him.

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When my property flooded, God sent me a scripture saying, in Psalms, that says he is enthroned over the flood. And that was like a little love note where I knew God saw me and I knew that he was in control and he would help me deal with whatever came afterwards. Rough things happen. Life is hard, but God is always working on our behalf.

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Now, the third thing that I want you to remember is that our job is to keep hope alive. That's it. Keep hoping, keep working, keep growing, keep developing and believing. In John 15, Jesus talks about how he is the true vine, the Father is the gardener, and we are the branches. Every branch that does not produce good fruit, it gets trimmed off. He trims out our dead wood so that we can produce more fruit.

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I know that with my roses, if I've got a branch that's dying, I need to cut that off or it's going to kill the whole plant. It's the same thing with fruit trees. The dead wood at the needs to be trimmed off so that it can produce more fruit in a new season. And that's what God does for us. And that pruning process is not always fun. It can be painful. It can seem like a trial. But it's making us stronger in the long run.

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John 15, verses 16 to 17 says, "You did not choose me." This is Jesus talking. "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another."

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See, our job, our assignment is to produce fruit for the kingdom and to love each other. Our job is to keep that hope alive, to know that the hardship is not going to last, that God's working on our behalf and everything's going to work out okay.

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Proverbs 16.3 says, "Commit your activities to the Lord and your plans will be established." And that's what we do. When we put our faith in the Lord's provision for us and we commit our plans to him, we commit our activities to him, he establishes our plans. He takes care of us. He brings us what we need because he is a loving Father.

Speaker 00:

So to recap, three things that we can look for in any unexpected hardship. The first one is that difficulties happen. This season will pass. Be patient. Stick with it. It's not going to last forever. The second thing is that God always provides for his children. Never forget that. He's always working behind the scenes on your behalf and on my behalf, and he's going to take care of us. Everything's going to work out okay.

Speaker 00:

And that leads us to the third point. Our job is to keep hope alive, keep trusting in God, and that's how we build our faith. We trust that he's going to work everything out okay. Keep growing, keep helping others, and keep loving others. That's our assignment. That's how we bring God's kingdom to earth. And that's how we strengthen our relationship with God by trusting in him and having faith that he's going to take care of everything. Life might be chaotic, but it's going to be okay.

Speaker 00:

If you liked this video, I have another one that I'm going to share with you on screen and I did a study sometime back on the book of Esther and there's a video I want to share with you that's entitled Finding Courage in Chaos. If you need more, go there and I hope that you enjoy that video. I think it'll strengthen you as well.

Speaker 00:

And if this blessed you, there's one more resource that I want to share with you. I wrote a book, Be the Warrior Queen: Practical Christian Strategies for Women to Achieve Victory in a Chaotic World. And I wrote that because I could see how women needed something to hold on to because everything that's been thrown at us lately has just been absolutely crazy to help us be strong in our families and our faith. And in these special times, I have put together a book special Warrior Queen book bundle. I'll put the link down in the show notes. So I want you to go down there and find it so that you can take advantage of this resource that I want to make available to you. It's a special book bundle. It has the book. It has a workbook that I put together to help you internalize the content and really get it into your heart. It also has an audiobook version that comes in the bundle. And there are some other bonuses in there as well, like my Book of Prayers: 31 Scripture-Based Prayers for Spiritual Warfare, and a couple of other things. So go find the link, check it out, get this resource. I want you to be strong. I want you to strengthen your faith in the Lord. And until next time, take care. Love you.

Speaker 00:

For more information on my books and other projects, visit my website at donawatson.com or my Substack at donawatson.substack.com