Romans 8:28 promises that God causes all things to work together for our good if we love Him and are called according to His purpose. That promise becomes an anchor for our lives when we're faced with difficult or devastating circumstances because we know He's going to bring something good...even when we don't understand what's going on.

Life is hard. Sometimes life is so hard that even as a follower of Jesus, we feel like giving up. Hebrews 12:1-3 gives us encouragement to persevere even in the toughest times of life because we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are cheering us on and we're following Jesus, who's been through it all before.

Jesus told his disciples that the world would hate them because it hated Him. The same holds true for disciples of Jesus today. The question is: How do we handle the hatred of the world when it comes our way?

Whenever we face suffering or hardship as a Christian, we have two choices. We can either step up or we can shrink back. However, as the writer of Hebrews said, "We are not of those who shrink back."

The foundation of a building is the most important part of the building. If the foundation is strong, the building will endure, but if the foundation is weak, the building will not stand. The same is true for us. If the foundation of our faith is strong, we will stand in times of storm. What is the foundation of your faith?

Everybody goes through storms in life. They may be financial storms, relationship storms, emotional storms, or spiritual storms, but everyone goes through them. The good news is that the bible assures us that we can come through any storm with our faith intact if we rely on Jesus in the midst of the storm.