Finding strength in God when life gets hard can be difficult, especially when you pray for things to get better but instead, the situation seems to become even more difficult.
The opportunity doesn’t appear. The financial problem gets bigger. Someone you trusted disappoints you. A door closes. A relationship becomes complicated. You work harder but don’t see the results you hoped for.
And eventually, a question can begin to form in your heart:
“How am I supposed to keep going when everything seems to be getting worse?”
The Bible does not promise that a life of faith will be free from difficulties. In fact, Scripture repeatedly shows people of faith facing obstacles, opposition, uncertainty, disappointment, and seasons when victory was anything but obvious.
One powerful example appears in Joshua 17.
The descendants of Joseph came to Joshua with a complaint. They believed the territory they had received was too small for them because they were a large people. Joshua’s response was not simply to hand them more land. Instead, he challenged them to go forward, clear the wooded land, and confront the people occupying the territory.
Their response revealed the obstacle they were focused on: “The Canaanites have iron chariots.”
Joshua did not deny the difficulty. He acknowledged that they were a large and strong people and told them to move forward anyway.
That passage offers an important lesson for anyone facing a difficult season: faith does not mean that obstacles disappear before you take the first step. Sometimes faith means taking the step while the obstacle is still there.
Here are seven lessons we can draw from this biblical account and from the broader message of Scripture.
1. Don’t Expect Everything to Be Ready for You
One of the strongest ideas in this message is that God’s calling does not necessarily mean that everything will already be prepared when you arrive.
The descendants of Joseph wanted more land, but Joshua essentially told them to go and develop what they had received.
The forest had to be cleared.
The territory had to be occupied.
The enemies had to be confronted.
In other words, they were not simply being asked to receive something. They were being challenged to act.
This distinction matters.
Sometimes we imagine that if God is truly leading us, the entire path should become easy. We expect every door to open, every resource to appear, and every obstacle to disappear.
But Scripture often presents a different picture.
The people of Israel still had battles to fight after entering the Promised Land. David still had to face Goliath. Joseph experienced betrayal and hardship before seeing the fulfillment of God’s purposes in his life.
A difficult beginning does not automatically mean you are on the wrong path.
Sometimes the beginning is difficult because there is something you still have to build, learn, overcome, or develop.
That doesn’t mean every difficult situation is automatically God’s will. It means that difficulty by itself is not proof that God has abandoned you.
2. Don’t Make Your Problems Bigger Than Your God
The descendants of Joseph saw the iron chariots.
They saw a genuine military obstacle.
Their concern was not imaginary.
But the message of Joshua 17 challenges us to consider what receives the greater attention in our minds: the size of the problem or the greatness of God?
Faith does not require pretending that problems aren’t real.
Debt can be real.
Loss can be real.
Opposition can be real.
Fear can be real.
Uncertainty can be real.
The biblical challenge is not to deny reality but to refuse to make the obstacle the final authority over your future.
This is an important difference.
You can acknowledge, “This is difficult,” without concluding, “Therefore, I cannot continue.”
You can say, “I don’t know how this will work,” without saying, “There is no way forward.”
Faith allows you to recognize the mountain without believing that the mountain is greater than God.
Finding strength in God doesn’t mean that the obstacle suddenly becomes smaller. It means learning to face the obstacle without forgetting who is greater.
The Bible repeatedly directs believers toward this perspective. David saw Goliath, but he did not interpret Goliath as the final word. His confidence was rooted in God rather than in his own military strength.
When your circumstances become overwhelming, ask yourself:
What am I magnifying right now?
The problem—or the God who is with me?
3. Sometimes the Battle Is About What Happens Inside Your Heart
The sermon makes an important distinction between different kinds of battles.
Some battles are external.
Others are internal.
Joseph’s life illustrates this in a particularly powerful way.
His brothers betrayed him, sold him, and deceived their father about what had happened to him. Joseph experienced injustice and circumstances that could have produced bitterness.
Yet when his story eventually brought him face-to-face with his brothers again, Scripture does not portray Joseph as someone consumed by revenge.
Instead, Genesis records Joseph recognizing God’s sovereignty over what had happened.
This doesn’t mean the betrayal wasn’t painful.
It doesn’t mean Joseph should have pretended nothing happened.
And it doesn’t mean forgiveness requires allowing harmful people unlimited access to your life.
Rather, Joseph’s story demonstrates the possibility of moving through injustice without allowing bitterness to become the defining force of your life.
This is one of the deeper applications of the sermon: sometimes winning a battle means refusing to become like the people who hurt you.
Sometimes strength in God is shown not by how loudly we respond, but by how faithfully we choose to respond when we have every reason to become bitter.
Someone can mistreat you without determining who you become.
Someone can lie about you without forcing you to become dishonest.
Someone can act with hatred without making you hateful.
Someone can disappoint you without destroying your ability to trust God.
That kind of spiritual resilience requires guarding your heart.
4. Don’t Let Fear Decide What You Will Attempt
The iron chariots represented something intimidating.
And intimidation can change the way people act.
Fear often doesn’t tell us to completely give up. Sometimes it simply convinces us to delay.
“Maybe later.”
“Maybe when I have more money.”
“Maybe when I’m more prepared.”
“Maybe when things become easier.”
“Maybe someone else should do it.”
But there are moments when faith requires movement before you feel completely ready.
David’s encounter with Goliath is an example.
The soldiers around him had more conventional military experience. Yet David stepped forward because his confidence was not based primarily on his own qualifications.
He believed God could give victory.
That doesn’t mean David was careless. He understood the danger. He simply refused to let fear have the final decision.
This is where courage becomes important.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear.
Courage is choosing what is right despite fear.
If fear has been controlling your decisions, perhaps the question isn’t, “How can I make every fear disappear?”
Perhaps the better question is:
“What would I do if I trusted God more than I trusted my fear?”
5. Your Difficult Season Does Not Have to Define You
The sermon repeatedly returns to the idea that people can begin in difficult places and eventually reach very different circumstances.
Someone may start small.
Someone may begin with limited resources.
Someone may experience rejection.
Someone may have to build slowly.
Someone may face years of uncertainty before seeing meaningful progress.
That is not necessarily evidence of failure.
Joseph’s story is one of the clearest biblical examples.
He went from being betrayed by his brothers to slavery, then imprisonment, and eventually a position of extraordinary responsibility in Egypt.
The difficult chapters were real chapters of his life, but they were not the whole story.
This is an important reminder when you’re in the middle of your own difficult chapter.
Don’t confuse the current chapter with the final outcome.
You may not know what God will do next.
You may not know how a particular situation will resolve.
You may not even understand why certain things happened.
But you can still choose faithfulness today.
Sometimes faith looks less like having all the answers and more like refusing to stop walking.
6. A Strong Spirit Helps You Keep Moving
The sermon places significant emphasis on having a strong “spirit”—using examples such as Joshua and Caleb, David, Daniel, and others.
The Bible does indeed describe people in terms of the condition or quality of their spirit. Proverbs 18:14, for example, speaks about a person’s spirit sustaining them in difficulty.
At the same time, it is important to distinguish this biblical language from the idea that a person’s strength is simply a matter of positive thinking.
Christian faith is not merely self-confidence.
The foundation of Christian courage is trust in God.
A person can be naturally confident and still lack spiritual depth. Conversely, someone can feel afraid and still choose to trust God.
So having a “strong spirit” can be understood, in the context of this message, as cultivating a posture of faith, courage, perseverance, and dependence on God rather than surrendering to fear and discouragement.
You may feel weak and still act in faith.
You may be nervous and still take the next step.
You may have doubts and still pray.
You may cry and still continue.
Faith does not require you to feel invincible.
It calls you to keep turning toward God.
True strength in God is not the feeling that you can handle everything by yourself. It is the willingness to depend on Him while doing what you can with courage, wisdom, and perseverance.
7. Keep Going Even When You Cannot See the Victory Yet
Perhaps the most practical lesson from Joshua 17 is simply this:
Keep moving.
Joshua told the descendants of Joseph that the territory could be expanded through their efforts. The challenge was not to sit and complain about the obstacle but to go forward and take action.
There is a time to pray.
There is a time to wait.
There is a time to seek wisdom.
And there is also a time to move.
If you have been waiting for every circumstance to become perfect before taking the next step, you may remain stuck indefinitely.
Life rarely provides perfect conditions.
The Israelites still had enemies.
David still had a giant.
Joseph still had a painful past.
Daniel still lived in an environment that challenged his faith.
Yet their circumstances did not have to become perfect before faithfulness was possible.
That can be encouraging when your own life feels unfinished.
Maybe the business isn’t where you want it to be yet.
Maybe the financial situation is still complicated.
Maybe you’re working hard without seeing the results.
Maybe someone has disappointed you.
Maybe you’re facing opposition.
Maybe you don’t know how the next chapter will unfold.
You don’t have to know everything to take the next faithful step.
Faith Doesn’t Mean There Will Be No Battles
One of the most important corrections to make when thinking about faith is that Christianity does not promise a completely comfortable life.
Jesus Himself told His followers that they would face trouble in the world.
The biblical message is not:
“If you have enough faith, nothing difficult will happen.”
Instead, Scripture repeatedly points believers toward God’s presence and faithfulness in the middle of difficulty.
That changes the way we understand victory.
Victory is not always immediate success.
Sometimes victory looks like remaining faithful.
Sometimes it looks like refusing bitterness.
Sometimes it means getting back up after disappointment.
Sometimes it means continuing to pray.
Sometimes it means asking for help and making a wise decision.
Sometimes it means taking responsibility for what is within your control.
And sometimes victory simply means taking one more step when everything inside you wants to stop.
When the Situation Gets Worse, What Should You Do?
When life becomes more difficult, you don’t have to pretend everything is fine.
When circumstances become overwhelming, finding strength in God can help you respond with faith while still taking wise and practical action.
Bring the reality of your situation to God.
Pray honestly.
Look at the facts.
Seek wise counsel.
Do what you can.
Address the problems that require practical action.
And then refuse to allow fear to become your master.
If the problem is financial, faith does not eliminate the need for responsible financial decisions.
If there is conflict, faith does not mean ignoring necessary boundaries.
If someone has harmed you, forgiveness does not mean you must remain in an unhealthy situation.
If you are facing an impossible-looking challenge, faith can coexist with wise planning.
Faith and action are not enemies.
The descendants of Joseph had to trust God, but they also had to clear the land.
David trusted God, but he still picked up the stones.
Nehemiah prayed, but he also rebuilt.
Faith does not always mean waiting for God to do everything for you.
Sometimes faith means trusting God enough to do what He has placed in front of you.
That is one way strength in God becomes practical: it moves us from simply asking for help to trusting God enough to act on what we can do today.
God Is Greater Than the Iron Chariots
The phrase “iron chariots” is powerful because it represents the thing that looks too strong to overcome.
Everyone has an “iron chariot.”
For one person, it may be fear.
For another, debt.
For someone else, rejection.
It may be a difficult workplace, a complicated family situation, a failed plan, or years of disappointment.
The obstacle may be real.
But it does not have to become the center of your identity.
Joshua’s message to the descendants of Joseph was essentially a challenge to stop measuring their future only by the size of the obstacle.
They were a large people.
They had strength.
They had territory.
And they were being called to move forward.
The same principle can encourage us today: don’t let what stands against you make you forget what you have been given.
You may not have everything you want yet.
You may still have a long road ahead.
But there is still something you can do today.
Pray.
Learn.
Work.
Forgive.
Plan.
Try again.
Ask for wisdom.
Take the next step.
And keep your faith.
When we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, strength in God gives us a reason to keep trusting, praying, and moving forward.
A Prayer for Strength in Difficult Times
Father, when our circumstances become difficult, help us remember that our problems are not greater than You.
When we are afraid, give us courage.
When we are discouraged, renew our strength.
When people hurt us, help us guard our hearts from bitterness.
When we face obstacles that seem impossible, give us wisdom to know what to do and faith to take the next step.
Help us not to magnify our problems more than we magnify Your goodness and faithfulness.
Teach us to remain faithful even when we cannot yet see the outcome.
Give us strength to continue, wisdom to act responsibly, courage to face what is in front of us, and humility to depend on You.
Help us become people who do not give up simply because the road becomes difficult.
May our difficult seasons produce perseverance, deeper faith, wisdom, and a testimony of Your faithfulness.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
A Word of Encouragement
Joshua 17 reminds us that faith does not always arrive in the form of an easy road.
Sometimes there is a forest to clear.
Sometimes there are enemies to confront.
Sometimes there are “iron chariots” standing in the way.
And sometimes the greatest challenge isn’t the obstacle itself but the fear that tells us we cannot overcome it.
The descendants of Joseph were challenged to move forward rather than simply complain about what they had been given.
Joseph had to protect his heart through betrayal.
David had to face a giant while others were afraid.
These stories don’t promise that every believer will experience the exact same kind of victory. Instead, they point us toward a broader biblical truth: difficult circumstances do not have to determine the condition of your faith.
You can acknowledge the struggle without surrendering to it.
You can feel afraid without allowing fear to make every decision.
You can be hurt without becoming bitter.
You can begin small without believing you will always remain small.
And you can keep walking even when you cannot yet see how the story will end.
If your situation is difficult today, don’t give your problems more authority than they deserve.
Look at them honestly.
Bring them to God.
Do what you can.
And then take the next step.
Keep your faith. Keep your heart. Keep moving forward.
The battle may not be over yet—but neither is your story.
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