Are you in a season of hardship in life where it feels like everything is going wrong? You’ve cried out to the Lord, but all you hear in response is deafening silence. You’ve been chasing your dreams but it feels like every door is slamming shut in your face. You’ve been searching for the sun, but all you see is rain pouring down on you. I feel you, my friend. And so does God—He sees you and He cares for you.

The thought might almost seem laughable at the moment. Is God really good or loving when it seems like you find trouble at every corner you turn? If He really loved you, wouldn’t He stop the pain and hardship?

Well, the answer at first glance might be hard to hear, and the truth is, no. He doesn’t always stop the pain. “Why?” you ask. "Doesn’t he care?"

He does care, my friend, and He’s using this hard experience to grow you. I like to think of our Christian growth like wildflowers.

Most of us only notice wildflowers in all of their beauty, but we forget that they too have undergone a lot of growth to become as strong and beautiful as they are now. I’m sure that if you were to ask seeds if growing was comfortable or fun, they would respond with a resounding no. But what they would say is that the growth is worth it. The flowers remind us why the rain is so necessary. Without the hard times, we’d never influence other lives or become the people God created us to be!

These periods are also meant to teach us the best place to go when we’re struggling. God is tearing you down in your strength to build you up in His! The truth is, so long as you try to endure this hardship in your own strength, you will always hit a dead end and fail. But when relying on God’s strength—we can always endure the trial no matter how hard it gets.

Right now, the growth might feel uncomfortable. It might feel never ending, worthless, or like God has left you to struggle on your own. But it is in these moments, thoughts, and emotions that we can look to the cross. “The cross?” you say. Why look to the cross that was used to kill our savior? Because of the lesson it teaches us my friend. Jesus’ cross shows us that the pain is to be expected, but it’s not wasted and it’s not the end. The nails weren’t holding Jesus there—It was his desire to save you! The cross shows us that God is willing and able to see it through, no matter how hard we try to fight the very things He’s using to help and grow us. The Cross shows us that what Christ started in us, He will finish!

The growth right now might feel painful and difficult. It might not feel worth it. But I can promise you that on the other side of this waiting period, struggle, or hardship, you’ll see the flowers and be grateful that God allowed you to experience the rain.