The Joy of Faith When Everything Else Has Failed (rewritten)

Jesus told his followers plainly: “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33) Experience confirms it. No one is exempt — not even the most devoted believers. The hardships God’s people face are not only external but internal as well. They include struggles of the mind alongside suffering of the body, and sometimes those struggles become overwhelming.

There are seasons when the usual comforts God allows us — often gently and generously — are stripped away. Health fades. Friends feel distant or unavailable. There is no pleasure in social life, no success in work, no relief from pressure or persecution, and no pause in the inward assaults of temptation.

Everything that normally offers encouragement seems to vanish at once.

Encouragement

Say not, 'tis all a dreary way,
With rocks beset, with briars growing,
Where never beams of sunlight stray,
And ne'er a gentle stream is flowing.

Or  if it be, that thou dost go
Through scenes so darksome, wild, and frightful,
Yet there is one who loves thee so,
That he can make e'en this delightful.

Jesus is ever near at hand,
To aid, to guide, and to deliver,
With his own arm, the chosen hand
Which he hath bought, to keep forever.

Then drive away thy doubts and fears,
Nor dread the ills that threat to hurt thee;
For Christ, that saw thee in thy tears,
Hath said, He never will desert thee.

— American Cottage Life (1850).