How to Keep your Faith in God During Hard Times – 9 Unshakable Ways

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I still remember that cold December morning when my faith felt as fragile as a autumn leaf in the wind. Like many of you searching for how to keep your faith in God during hard times, I found myself sitting on my bedroom floor, tears streaming down my face, wondering if God could still hear me. It’s funny how life’s toughest moments can make even our strongest beliefs feel like they’re built on shaky ground, isn’t it?

Listen, I’m not here to give you some sugar-coated, picture-perfect advice that sounds good but doesn’t work in real life. Instead, I want to share real, practical ways that have helped me and countless others hold onto faith when everything else seems to be falling apart. We’ll dive into game-changing strategies like building a spiritual support system that actually works (no, you don’t have to do this alone), discovering the surprising power of helping others when you’re hurting (trust me, it’s life-changing), and learning how to find peace even when your prayers seem to hit the ceiling.

You know that feeling when you’re driving through dense fog, barely able to see a few feet ahead? That’s what a faith crisis can feel like. But here’s the thing – just like that fog eventually lifts, these challenging seasons don’t last forever. Whether you’re dealing with a heart-wrenching loss, a medical diagnosis that’s turned your world upside down, or a situation that’s making you question everything you believe, I’m here to walk alongside you through these nine proven ways to strengthen your faith. Because sometimes, all we need is someone who’s been there to show us the way forward.

1. Acknowledge Your Feelings and Doubts

You know what’s funny? I used to think being a “good Christian” meant plastering on a smile and pretending everything was fine, even when my world was crumbling. But let me tell you about the night that changed everything. There I was, sitting in my car outside my church, sobbing uncontrollably after receiving news about my mother’s diagnosis. I couldn’t bring myself to go inside, feeling somehow that my tears and anger were a betrayal of my faith.

But here’s the beautiful truth I discovered: God can handle our raw emotions. When learning how to keep your faith in God during hard times, the first step isn’t to suppress your feelings – it’s to pour them out honestly before Him. Just look at David in the Psalms! This man after God’s own heart wasn’t afraid to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). Even Jesus, in His darkest moment in Gethsemane, expressed His anguish openly.

Your doubts don’t make you a bad believer; they make you human. Think about Thomas – yes, “Doubting Thomas.” He wasn’t kicked out of the disciples’ club for needing proof. Instead, Jesus met him right where he was, scars and all. Sometimes, acknowledging our doubts becomes the very pathway to deeper faith. As the father in Mark 9:24 cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” – and guess what? Jesus honored that honest prayer.

2. Stay Connected to Your Spiritual Community

Remember that car I mentioned earlier, where I sat alone with my tears? Well, here’s what happened next. A fellow church member named Sarah noticed my car in the parking lot and simply sat with me. No preaching, no quick fixes – just presence. That moment taught me something crucial about faith: we were never meant to walk this journey alone.

When you’re trying to figure out how to keep your faith in God during hard times, isolation can be your biggest enemy. I get it – when life hits hard, our natural instinct is to retreat, to hide away like Elijah in his cave. But remember what God did? He didn’t leave Elijah alone; He sent him back to community (1 Kings 19).

Look, your spiritual family might not have all the answers (spoiler alert: they won’t), but they have something just as valuable – shared experiences and willing hearts. The early church in Acts didn’t just gather for sermons; they shared meals, resources, and lives together (Acts 2:42-47). Sometimes, faith is sustained through a late-night phone call with a prayer partner, a meal delivered to your doorstep, or simply knowing you’re not the only one struggling.

3. Maintain Daily Spiritual Practices

Let me paint you a picture of my first attempt at maintaining a “quiet time” during my mom’s cancer treatment. Picture this: me, attempting to read my Bible at 5 AM in the hospital waiting room, dozing off every other minute, and feeling like a complete spiritual failure. But you know what? Those imperfect moments of reaching out to God became my lifeline.

Here’s the thing about spiritual practices – they don’t have to look Instagram-perfect to be meaningful. Learning how to keep your faith in God during hard times often comes down to these small, daily choices to connect with Him. Think of it like breathing – you don’t have to think about every breath, but you need that constant exchange to stay alive.

Start small. Maybe it’s just five minutes of prayer while you’re brewing your morning coffee. Or perhaps it’s listening to worship music during your commute. King David, despite running for his life and facing countless battles, declared, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). The key isn’t perfection; it’s persistence. My own journey taught me that sometimes the most powerful prayers are just whispered “help me” between hospital beeps, and the most meaningful Bible reading might be clinging to just one verse all day.

Create your own sacred space and time. For me, it became that quiet hour before my kids wake up, with my coffee and journal. Some days, I write pages of prayers; other days, I just sit in silence. Both are equally valuable. As Jesus himself demonstrated by often withdrawing to lonely places to pray (Luke 5:16), these moments of connection aren’t luxury – they’re necessity.

4. Remember Past Victories

The day my mom went into remission, I started a peculiar habit. I took a small stone from the hospital garden and wrote the date on it. Now, I have a jar full of these “victory stones” – each marking a moment when God came through. It might seem silly, but there’s something powerful about having tangible reminders of God’s faithfulness.

You see, discovering how to keep your faith in God during hard times often means becoming an intentional collector of memories. Remember how Samuel set up an Ebenezer stone, saying “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12)? He knew what we often forget – that remembering past victories fuels future faith.

Pull out your phone right now and start a “God Stories” note. Write down every answered prayer, every “coincidence” that wasn’t really a coincidence, every moment of unexpected peace in the storm. My list includes everything from major miracles to tiny provisions – like that time a stranger paid for my coffee when I was having the worst day of my life. These aren’t just stories; they’re your personal proof that God hasn’t changed. As David declared before facing Goliath, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me” (1 Samuel 17:37).

5. Focus on Gratitude

Let me be real with you – when my mom was sick, gratitude felt almost impossible. Some days, I’d look at my gratitude journal and want to throw it across the room. But then something unexpected happened in that hospital room that changed my perspective forever.

One morning, I watched as my mom, despite her weakness, thanked her nurse for the smallest things – adjusting her pillow, bringing fresh water, even just smiling. In those moments, learning how to keep your faith in God during hard times took on a new meaning. Gratitude, I realized, isn’t about feeling thankful; it’s about choosing to notice God’s presence even in the darkest valleys.

Start ridiculously small. That’s what Paul meant when he said to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Notice I said “in” not “for” – we don’t have to be thankful for the pain, but we can find things to be thankful for within it. My gratitude list some days looked like this: “Thank you for pain medication. Thank you for chairs in the waiting room. Thank you for vending machine coffee.” It might seem trivial, but it’s revolutionary. As Habakkuk declared, “Though the fig tree does not bud…yet I will rejoice in the Lord” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

6. Serve Others Despite Your Pain

The most transformative moment in my faith journey came on what should have been my darkest day. Hours after a particularly rough chemo session with mom, I found myself helping another family in the waiting room navigate their first day of treatment. In my own pain, somehow, I found purpose.

This might sound counterintuitive when you’re searching for how to keep your faith in God during hard times, but serving others can become your saving grace. It’s like what Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane – even in His anguish, He turned to check on His disciples (Matthew 26:36-46). There’s something profoundly healing about stepping outside our own pain to help someone else.

You don’t need to start a nonprofit or lead a ministry (though if that’s your calling, go for it!). Sometimes serving looks like sending a text to check on someone when you barely have energy to get out of bed. Or maybe it’s sharing your story with someone who’s just starting a similar journey. “Praise be to the God…who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

The beautiful irony? When you reach out to others in your brokenness, something profound happens. Your own load feels lighter, not because it’s gone, but because you’re living proof that God can use anyone, at any time, in any condition. I discovered this truth in that hospital waiting room – sometimes our deepest ministry flows from our deepest wounds.

7. Immerse Yourself in Worship

Something magical happened in that hospital room that I’ll never forget. One particularly rough evening, when the machines were beeping their endless symphony and hope felt distant, I put on my mom’s favorite worship song. As the familiar melody of “It Is Well” filled the sterile air, I watched tears stream down her face – not tears of pain, but of peace. In that moment, worship became more than just singing; it became our battlefield.

When you’re learning how to keep your faith in God during hard times, worship might be the last thing on your mind. But here’s the thing – worship isn’t about feeling good; it’s about declaring truth even when your feelings don’t match up. Think about Paul and Silas, singing hymns at midnight in that prison cell (Acts 16:25). They weren’t exactly in a “praise party” mood, but they chose worship anyway.

Create your own worship sanctuary, wherever you are. Mine became my car – yes, really. Those drives between hospital visits became holy ground as I belted out songs (probably terribly off-key) through tears and traffic. King David danced before the Lord with all his might (2 Samuel 6:14), and sometimes our worship needs to be just as uninhibited. Make playlists for different emotions – songs for when you’re angry, scared, hopeful, or just plain tired. Let the psalms become your prayer book; after all, they’re filled with every human emotion imaginable.

8. Seek Wisdom from Spiritual Mentors

During mom’s treatment, I met Martha, an elderly lady who’d survived cancer twice. She didn’t offer platitudes or quick fixes; instead, she shared her own messy, beautiful story of faith through illness. Her weathered Bible, filled with highlighted verses and scribbled notes, became a roadmap for my own journey through uncertainty.

Finding someone who’s walked a similar path becomes crucial when figuring out how to keep your faith in God during hard times. The Bible shows us this pattern repeatedly – Moses had Jethro, Ruth had Naomi, Timothy had Paul. These weren’t just casual relationships; they were life-giving connections that shaped destinies. As Proverbs 15:22 reminds us, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with your mentors. I remember breaking down completely during one coffee meeting with Martha, admitting that I was angry at God. Instead of judgment, she shared how she had wrestled with similar feelings years ago. “Two are better than one,” says Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, “because if one falls down, their friend can help them up.” Your mentor doesn’t need to have all the answers; they just need to be a few steps ahead on the journey and willing to share their map.

9. Rest in God’s Promises

Let me tell you about the most dog-eared page in my Bible. It’s where Isaiah 41:10 lives: “Do not fear, for I am with you.” During those endless nights in the hospital, when sleep eluded me and worry became my unwelcome companion, God’s promises became my lullaby. They weren’t just words on a page anymore; they became lifelines to which I desperately clung.

Understanding how to keep your faith in God during hard times often comes down to this: choosing to believe His promises even when everything around you seems to contradict them. Think of God’s promises like an anchor in a storm – they don’t stop the waves from coming, but they keep you from drifting away. Joshua 21:45 reminds us, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”

Start collecting promises like precious gems. Write them on sticky notes, save them as phone wallpapers, whisper them in the dark hours. My personal favorite became Lamentations 3:23: “His mercies are new every morning.” Some days, that promise was all I had – the hope that tomorrow would bring fresh mercy, fresh strength, fresh grace. Create a promise journal, where you write down specific promises and date them when you see them fulfilled. It’s like creating your own personal testament to God’s faithfulness.

Remember, these promises aren’t magical incantations – they’re love letters from a Father who keeps His word. As Peter reminds us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). Even on days when your faith feels as thin as paper, His promises remain unshakeable.

Conclusion

You know, as I sit here writing this, looking at that jar of “victory stones” on my desk and remembering the journey through my mom’s illness, I can’t help but marvel at how faith grows in the most unexpected ways. It’s rarely a straight path, and that’s okay. Sometimes keeping your faith looks like ugly crying in your car, screaming worship songs through tears, or simply whispering “help me, God” between breaths.

What I’ve learned, and what I hope you take away from these nine steps, is that faith isn’t about having it all together or never doubting. It’s about choosing to take one more step, even when you can’t see the whole path. Whether you’re in the thick of your storm right now or preparing for whatever lies ahead, remember this: the same God who walked with me through hospital corridors, who gave me strength when I had none left, and who brought healing in ways I never expected – that same God is with you too.

And hey, maybe you’re reading this and feeling like your faith is hanging by a thread. Can I tell you something? That thread is stronger than you think, because it’s not held by your strength, but by His faithfulness. As my dear friend Martha would say, “God doesn’t waste our pain” – and I believe that includes the pain you’re going through right now. Keep holding on, keep reaching out, keep worshiping, keep serving, and most importantly, keep believing. Your storm might be big, but your God is bigger.

Remember, faith isn’t about the size of your steps – it’s about the direction you’re moving. Take these strategies one day at a time, one moment at a time if you need to. And on the days when it all feels too heavy, know that somewhere out there, I’m praying for you, believing with you, and cheering you on. Because if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that dawn always follows the darkest night.