There are wonderful seasons in life when everything seems to go well and the world feels peaceful — like a bowl of cherries. But those seasons are often short-lived. Sooner or later, something happens that disrupts our tranquility.
Why?
Because Satan and demonic influences run rampant in this world. Their fingerprints are always sin, destruction, and disorder. Nothing in this world has escaped that corruption. Evil has touched every part of God’s creation, and because of that, we all face difficult seasons. I’ve never met a person who hasn’t gone through hard times.
Satan’s goal in those times is strategic. He wants to wear you down, pull you low, and convince you that God doesn’t exist — or if He does, that He doesn’t care. The enemy whispers:
“If God loved you, you wouldn’t be facing this.”
“God is a joke.”
“You’re alone. Give up.”
His tactics never change. He works to pull people into discouragement and depression, hoping they’ll try to escape through alcohol, drugs, sex, or other vices. He wants to shut down your purpose — your calling to love God and love others. His ultimate desire is to bring you to hopelessness so you abandon your faith altogether.
This is not an exaggeration. It’s happening to people every single day. And Bud, God has used Fresh Manna again and again to rescue people from that very place and pull them back on track with Him.
When struggles pile up, it can feel like falling dominoes — one problem triggering another until doubt, discouragement, and feelings of failure start knocking at the door of your mind.
And when you’re already feeling down, that’s when the enemy comes in to deliver the deathblow.
You’re already beating yourself up. Then the devil adds:
“This is all your fault.”
“You failed God again.”
“You don’t deserve to call yourself a Christian.”
“You’re unusable.”
But hear this:
If any of us quit serving God whenever we struggled, the Body of Christ would collapse overnight. None of us would be standing.
Our righteousness — our worth before God — never came from our perfect behavior anyway.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) — “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
Romans 5:17 (NLT) teaches that righteousness is a gift.
Philippians 3:9 (NLT) says we “become righteous through faith in Christ.”
That’s why Satan fights so hard to discourage you — he hates the truth that you stand righteous before God by faith, not by performance.
When the devil lies to you, remember this:
Ephesians 6:17 (NIV) — “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
The helmet of salvation reminds you:
• You didn’t earn your salvation.
• You didn’t earn your righteousness.
• God sees you through the blood of Jesus.
• You are His — even on your worst day.
The helmet protects your mind from the enemy’s accusations and attacks meant to make you feel unworthy, unusable, and unloved.
So here’s the bottom line:
Don’t quit serving God.
Don’t quit loving people.
Don’t quit offering encouragement — even when you’re struggling.
In fact, that’s often the best time to serve someone else. God uses those moments to lift your eyes off your own trouble and strengthen your heart as you strengthen another.
Personal victories come in time. God is with you. If you refuse to quit, you will win — and those touched by God’s love through you will win as well.
As my mentor told me long ago:
When you don’t quit, you win.
Romans 8:38 (NLT) — “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love… not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”
