Whenever someone tells you to hold on just a little longer, how do you feel? Whenever you are at the end of your rope, and you’re told by your trusted friend or family member to trust God and that “Everything will work out,” how does that make you feel? Have you ever felt angry at yourself because you can’t seem to find the peace that God offers?

It is ok to feel angry, just don’t stay in that state of mind for very long. You know deep within your heart that you want to have that certainty of everything working out for good.

You long for that reassurance that God used to give you, or so you thought. The truth is, He never stopped giving you that sense of peace or the feeling of calmness amongst the chaos. Rather, you just chose to stop receiving it and closed your heart to it.

That is how the world works, unfortunately. You get so caught up in the things that you have to do, or the things that you think you have to do. You run your life, and then when things get tough, you cry out to God for help and clarification as to why things are harder now than they ever were before.

You ask Him where He is amongst all the chaos in your life, and when you don’t get an answer right away, you can start to doubt that He ever was there in the first place. Doubt is another part of life. You can doubt God’s promises, and His words, especially if you are already feeling down about yourself. Emotions can play a powerful role in your faith walk.

When your emotions take over, do your instantly find yourself praying that God would help you through everything that you’re feeling? Chances are, you probably don’t even think about praying until you’ve spent a lot more time crying and venting about situations that you don’t have to control than you ever spend praying about them.

It’s a tough thing to remind yourself to pray about hard times when you just feel like crying and having a pity party or continue to be angry at yourself. When you give in to those emotions, sure it may feel good to complain and vent about life for a few minutes, but doesn’t it wear you down more than praying does?

Prayer is sometimes the only thing that can give you that peace that you long for. Have you ever prayed when you’ve felt stressed to the max and then within minutes of giving things up to God in prayer, you felt the peace that you needed in your heart? Remember, that is sometimes how quick prayer works. God can and will answer your prayers. It takes a lot of time and discipline to start believing that whatever you ask for in prayer, you will receive.

When things get hard, you put the unneeded and unwanted pressure on yourself, because you think you’re supposed to be better at tasks in your life such as your job, than what you are. You might even think that you’re supposed to know absolutely everything. The good news is, God is all knowing and all powerful and all present, so you don’t have to put that much pressure on yourself to get everything right every single day. Don’t punish yourself on any given day just because things didn’t go the way you wanted, or expected.

Don’t punish yourself for not getting everything on your list, done in one day. Remember the Bible verse that says do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will have enough problems of its own”? Why do you think it is in the Bible in the first place? It is there for you, to remind yourself and to get that reminder from God that He is the one in control, not you.

You may not want to give up the control, but you absolutely have to be willing to give it up and let Him have the reigns of your life before your life becomes even more chaotic. Being able and willing to give up the things you can’t control and just trying to do your best in life, is all you can do. You’re not ever making a mistake by praying to God for peace and putting Him back in the driver’s seat of your life where He belongs.

God always was and always is there for you, and you just have to make the time to teach yourself that He is walking with you, through both the good times and bad times. He is there with you no matter what. He has never stopped caring about you, or the story that He has set out for you in life. Sometimes all it takes is one prayer to put the much-needed peace back into your heart.