How to Build Rock-Solid Faith When God Stirs the Coals

True or false: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Ever since Kelly Clarkson popularized that line in song, it’s become a motto of resilience for those battling a trial. The assumption is, if you survive whatever it is you’re dealing with, you’ll be stronger and better than before. If you can make it through this, you can make it through anything.

But the queen of “What Doesn’t Kill You” also sang “Because of You” in response to her parents’ divorce—and she wasn’t talking about how it made her better.

In truth, catchy as the saying might be, it doesn’t work that way. It’s not what you survive that makes you stronger. It’s turning to God during the battle that makes you stronger, and this is how you build rock-solid faith.

What Doesn’t Kill You Might Defeat You Anyway

Everyone knows someone who fell apart after personal tragedy. Consider the man who became an alcoholic after his wife died, or the girl swamped by depression after a major heartbreak. Think of the bullying victim who commits suicide. Do you think any one of them would declare themself stronger because of what they went through?

In a two-minute devotion from Time of Grace, Pastor Jared points out that your body doesn’t build strength while you are lifting weights. Weightlifting creates microtears in your muscles that, for all it seems, should actually make you weaker. When you rest, however, your body repairs the tears, building up muscle mass. Therefore, strength is built during moments of rest, not movement.

Faith works the same way

Strengthen Your Faith Like You Strengthen Muscles

Life’s trials don’t have to kill you to defeat you. They just have to tear you apart.

Don’t kid yourself by thinking all I have to do is survive this and I’ll be stronger. Life’s trials don’t have to kill you to defeat you. They just have to tear you apart. Whatever you’re going through, whether it be illness, injury, trouble at school, or relationship issues, those are not the things that make your faith stronger. If that were true, a lot more people would be deep-soul Christians.

It’s God who makes you stronger, and you build rock-solid faith when you seek rest in him while he mends the tears in your faith. Sometimes he will let you face adversity for the purpose of making you stronger. Christian are like coals. If we separate, we lose our heat, and every once in a while we need a good stir to keep the flame burning hot.

Think of the rough times as God stirring the coals. It’s not pleasant, but it’s necessary to keep the flames of faith alive

7 Principles to Help You Build Rock-Solid Faith During Difficult Times

God answered, but not in the way you expect:

“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? … Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? … Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place? … Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? … Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail …”

Verses from Job 38 & 39

The truth, to which Job humbly ceded in the end, is we have no business demanding God tell us why he does what he does because we would never understand anyway. His wisdom is too great for us to comprehend.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

Trouble comes and you may never know why. You don’t have to. All you need is to remember that God is good and he’s right there with you.

(For deeper insight into the Book of Job, check out this awesome 11-minute video from the Bible Project.)

2) Turn to the Bible.

Christian are like coals. If we separate, we lose our heat, and every once in a while we need a good stir to keep the flame burning hot.

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”

Isaiah 51:1

There’s no greater way to strengthen your faith than to listen to God’s own words.

God makes himself known to you through Holy Scripture, and that’s where you should head first when you’ve hit a speed bump in life. He invites you in. Seek him so that you may gain comfort and wisdom through your trials.

Need a place to start? Where to Look in Scripture During Your Darkest Nights.

3) Pray, pray, pray some more.

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray.”

James 5:13

Maybe you don’t need to be told to pray when you’re in trouble, but do you pray enough? Do you come to God again and again with your hurts and requests? A parent might tire of a child asking for a cookie over and over, but God insists you keep praying to him and holding him to his promises. He wants it. Don’t give up. Pray for him to help you build rock-solid faith.

Related: How to Have a Richer Prayer Life.

4) Reach out to Christian friends.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…”

Hebrews 10:24

Remember the first bit of wisdom regarding coals and Christians? If we separate, we fizzle out. Yes, you absolutely need the support of other Christians, especially during a time of trial. Yet another reason why young Christians absolutely need to go to church.

5) Let it go.

Doesn’t that phrase evoke visions of Elsa building her ice castle atop the North Mountain? But seriously, this is the simplest yet hardest part about faith during difficult times: Letting God handle it. Trusting he’s got your back.

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

Psalm 55:22

How freeing to give your troubles to someone bigger and stronger who will take care of them for you.

6) Look ahead to eternal life.

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you … Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.”

Isaiah 55:12-13

If there’s one piece of wisdom that applies in all situations, it’s “This too shall pass.” 

Your life on earth will one day end, and with its passage so will your hurts, your fear, your struggles. You will enter into eternity with God—the one thing that shall never pass. The best is yet to come! May you find comfort in that when you are suffering.

7) Thank God for stirring the coals!

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:3-5

God’s goal is not for you to have the most carefree, comfortable earthly life possible. No, he thinks bigger than that. He thinks along the lines of glory and eternal paradise, and he’ll do what it takes to strengthen your faith and get you there. Rejoice when trials draw you closer to him! Thank him for stirring the coals and helping you build rock-solid faith and a closer relationship with him.

Bible Verses About Strength in Hard Times

• “Continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7
• “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” Exodus 15:2
• “It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.” 2 Samuel 22:33
• “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.” Psalm 28:7
• “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13
• “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19
• “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31

Make Your Faith Stronger: For Further Reading

• Learn how to use your Shield of Faith in Armor of God 101.
• Rate your faith resiliency in Indestructible Faith: Toughen Up When the Waters Rise.
• Make your faith stronger with these 6 Must-Read Nonfiction Books For Christian Teens.