How to Deal with Difficulty

Introduction

Opening Illustration: a string of small, everyday mishaps (power outage, spoiled milk, dead car battery, burst pipe) — frustrating, but not real difficulty.

Picture the worst version of an ordinary day. You oversleep because the power blinked out overnight and reset your alarm. You reach for the milk and find out it turned. On the way out the door you step in a puddle that has no business being in your kitchen, and when you trace it back you find a pipe has let go under the sink. You call a plumber, but first you have to move the car, and the car won't start. By the time you've jumped the battery, mopped up what you can, and finally gotten out the door, you're already behind for the day — and none of that has touched anything that actually matters. That's just a bad Tuesday. It's fiction, not a real problem

Contrast with the real kind: a diagnosis, a layoff, a dying marriage, a prodigal child, the finances that don’t add up…

Real difficulty is different. Real difficulty is the diagnosis. The layoff notice. The marriage that's been quietly dying for years and finally says so out loud. The child who won't call home. The account that won't balance no matter how many times you run the numbers.

Everybody in this room either just came out of a season like that, is walking through one right now, or is heading into one they don't know about yet.

Nobody is exempt. Jesus didn't promise His followers an easy road; He promised the opposite:

John 16:33 NLT

33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

The question is not whether or not we are going to face difficulties. The real question is what do you do when you are facing difficulties?

Paul, who faced more difficulties than amost anyone in the NT, write in 2 CO 6:4

2 Corinthians 6:4 GNB

4 Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God’s servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties.

Not by avoiding them; but by enduring them well. Thats the difference between a faith that gets stronger during difficult times and faith that gets shipwrecked by the difficult time.

How we handle difficulties is the clearest window into our spiritual maturity. Complain, quit, blame everyone else, and you stay stuck. Learn from it, and you grow.

Set up Acts 27

This is an account of one of the most detailed, true to life disaster accounts in the Bible. Paul is a prisoner being transported to Rome. He warns the crew that a storm is coming in Acts 27:10 “Men,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—shipwreck, loss of cargo, and danger to our lives as well.”” But they don’t listen and sail anyway and run right into a storm. They become shipwrecked and the ship and it’s cargo are destroyed.

Buried in this story is a class on three things to do when facing a storm: Determine the reason; determine the result; and determine the response.

Three things to do when facing a storm

1. Determine the reason.

Ask, what actually caused this?

Before you can deal with a storm well, you need to understand where it came from — not to assign blame for its own sake, but because the source of a problem often points toward its solution.

Four Possible Sources of Difficulty

Yourself

Other People

The enemy

God

So How do you know which one you are dealing with? Moistly we learn that the same way the Psalmist did in Psa 73:16-17

Psalm 73:16–17 NLT

16 So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! 17 Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.

Clarity comes in God’s presence, not in anxious replaying…

He couldn't figure out his problem by turning it over in his own head one more time. He had to get into God's presence. That's still true. Clarity about a storm rarely comes from anxious replaying; it comes from worship, from Scripture, from being still enough for God to speak. That's part of why gathering with God's people matters as much as it does — He often clarifies things for us in the middle of a service that we couldn't see on our own all week.

The men on Paul's ship never got that clarity, because they never even considered that God might have already spoken through Paul. And because they skipped that step, they made three mistakes worth naming — the same three mistakes that get us into unnecessary storms today.

Three mistakes that sail you into a storm

Trust the experts instead of God’s Word.

Acts 27:11 NLT

11 But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul.

The Captains advice beat Paul’s warning.

Go with the majority.

Acts 27:12 NLT

12 And since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor—a poor place to spend the winter—most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there. Phoenix was a good harbor with only a southwest and northwest exposure.

270 on board and the vote of the majority like most times was wrong. Another time, the people of Israel voted not to enter the promised land and it got them 40 years in the desert. An entire generation of Israelites never made it to the promised land.

The majority was catastrophically wrong… and is most of the time.

Read good circumstances as permission.

Acts 27:13 NLT

13 When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

The gentle wind felt like an open door. It was a beautiful day for sailing. Open doors do not always = God’s approval.

Let me say this because it matters for Paul’s story and probably matters to someone here. Not every storm is self caused. Paul warned them not to go, but he was not the one who made the decision. But he was still shipwrecked.

Sometimes you're the innocent party: wrong place, wrong time, caught in a storm someone else stirred up. That kind of storm is often the hardest to process, because there's no lesson-through-hindsight to soften it, no “well, I shouldn't have done that.” You just have to ride it out anyway.

When you are facing a storm,

2. Determine the Result

Ask, What does God want to produce in me through this?

Once you've done what you can to understand where a storm came from, a more important question takes over: what is this storm for?

2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT

17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

The problem light, it doesn’t last. What God is doing in you does last.

That reframes everything, because our first instinct in a hard season is almost always to hunt for someone to blame. Whose fault is this? But the more useful question isn't where the storm came from — it's what God intends to do with it now that it's here. Even when you do foolish things yourself, God can use it. Even when someone else hurts you on purpose, He can use it. Even when the enemy means it for evil, God can still bring good out of it

Listen to these verses…

Genesis 50:20 NLT

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Romans 8:28 NLT

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

His purpose is bigger than your pain, and He has never once been caught off guard by the storm you're in.

Paul says,

Romans 5:3–4 NLT

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

Suffering → perseverance → character → hope.

Every storm is a classroom. Every trial is, whether you asked for the lesson or not, a teacher. And here's the sobering part: most of us are slow students. If the lesson doesn't take the first time, it tends to come back around — not because God is cruel, but because He is more committed to your character than to your comfort.

If you're in a hard season right now — an illness, a fear you can't shake, a financial hole, a relationship that's fraying — hear this clearly:

God did not bring you to this point to abandon you here. His word for you today is simple.

Don't give up. Grow up.

That's the whole aim of the storm. Not to sink you — to mature you

3. Determine the Response

Ask, What does God want to produce in me through this?

Life isn’t fair. You will be hurt many times in life.

Every hard season will do one of two things: make you bitter or better. What happens IN your matters more than what happens TO you. What determines which one happens is almost never the circumstance itself — it's your response to it. What happens to you matters far less than what happens in you. The circumstances are temporary; you don't carry them into eternity. What you do carry is the character they produced.

The crew on Paul's ship shows us three responses to avoid, because we default to all three under pressure.

Three wrong responses

Drifting

Acts 27:15 LBP

14 But shortly afterwards the weather changed abruptly, and a heavy wind of typhoon strength (a “northeaster,” they called it) caught the ship and blew it out to sea. They tried at first to face back to shore but couldn’t, so they gave up and let the ship run before the gale.

They'd been at sea fourteen days without seeing the sun or a single star, with no way to get their bearings, so they simply stopped steering and let the wind take them wherever it wanted. That's exactly what difficulty tempts you to do with your goals, your calling, your dreams. Some people go through a hard season and quietly stop trying — no more ambition, no more direction, just going through the motions because trying feels pointless. Drifting feels like relief, but it's really just coasting, and you never coast anywhere but downhill.

Discarding

Acts 27:18–19 NLT

18 The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard. 19 The following day they even took some of the ship’s gear and threw it overboard.

First the cargo went. Then the equipment. By verse 38 they're even throwing the food overboard, willing to strip the ship down to nothing just to survive one more hour. That's a very human reaction to pressure — under enough stress, people start throwing overboard things they'd never let go of in calmer weather.

A marriage. A conviction. A friendship. A calling. “I'm done.” “I'm out.” “I can't do this anymore.”

But notice what happens a little later: when the sailors try to secretly lower a lifeboat and escape, Paul tells the centurion, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved” (v. 31), and the soldiers cut the lifeboat loose on purpose, so no one could take the easy way out. Sometimes the most spiritually mature thing you can do in a storm is cut away your own exits — close the escape hatch, and decide in advance that some things simply are not up for negotiation, no matter how bad it gets.

Leave yourself an exit, and you will eventually be tempted to use it, and you'll never build the character that only comes from staying..

Despairing

Acts 27:20 NLT

20 The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.

Hope is always the last thing to go, and it went. What they'd forgotten, in fourteen days of darkness, was that God had never actually left the boat. If you feel far from God in your storm, it's worth asking honestly who moved — because it usually isn't Him. He is still in it with you, even when you can't feel Him, even when you can't see a single star to navigate by.

So what's the right response instead? Paul models three things worth naming.

The right response - 3 C’s

Confess your part.

If you brought a storm on yourself, own it. Stop building a case for why it's really someone else's fault.

Proverbs 28:13 NLT

13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

Own it instead of building a case for who else is to blame. Whatever it is — a habit, a temper, a pattern you keep repeating — naming it honestly is the first step out of it. You can't fix what you won't admit.

Confront it.

Do the next right, practical thing instead of freezing. With the ship about to break apart, Paul tells everyone to eat something …

Acts 27:33–36 NLT

33 Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. “You have been so worried that you haven’t touched food for two weeks,” he said. 34 “Please eat something now for your own good. For not a hair of your heads will perish.” 35 Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. 36 Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat—

… because under pressure people abandon the basic disciplines that keep them steady. Then he has them lighten the ship, cut the anchors, and deliberately steer straight toward the shore instead of trying to ride out the open water.

Acts 27:39–40 NLT

39 When morning dawned, they didn’t recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground. 40 So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore.

You don't get through a storm by going around it — you go through it. God rarely removes you from the middle of a hard season; He walks you through it. Face it head-on and you'll make it. Turn sideways to avoid it and you'll capsize.

Claim a promise

Scripture is loaded with promises for exactly this moment. Paul stood on the deck of a ship about to be destroyed and said…

Acts 27:25 NLT

25 So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said.

God never promised the ship. He promised the people. Your ship might not make it — the job, the house, the plan you had — but that was never the promise. The promise was you. And when the ship finally does run aground and start breaking into pieces (vv. 41–44) Acts 27:41-44, every single person on board still makes it to shore — some swimming, some clinging to broken planks and debris. None of them arrive in perfect shape. All of them arrive.

Acts 27:41–44 NLT

41 But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart. 42 The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn’t swim ashore and escape. 43 But the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn’t let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land. 44 The others held onto planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore.

Conclusion

That's usually how it goes for us too. You may reach shore holding onto a broken piece of what you had — a marriage that looks different than you planned, a career that took a hit, a heart that's still healing. But you'll reach shore. God's promise was never that the ship stays intact. It's that you don't go down with it.

So as you think about whatever storm you're facing right now, here's a simple way to respond, depending on where it came from.

If you brought it on yourself, repent — turn around, and let God help you change.

If someone else brought it into your life, forgive them, the same way you've been forgiven.

If it carries the enemy's fingerprints, resist him, and he will flee (James 4:7 “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” .

And if it's simply God, working something in you that only a storm could produce, then rest — stop fighting the process, and let Him finish what He started.

Whatever the source, the same question is worth asking in every storm: God, what do You want me to learn here? And the same posture is worth taking in every storm: my confidence isn't in the ship. It's in You.