Why Have Faith When Bad Things Keep Happening?

If you know me, or maybe if you have been reading my posts, you undoubtedly know that I have had several medical problems this year. [I tend to whine and overshare sometimes]

It's one thing after another. My life is like playing Whack-a-Mole, you whack [mole] one down and another pops up, and on and on. When relentless issues happen in our lives (doesn't have to be illness, it can be any of life's worries. I have plenty of those too), it can bring us low.  So low in fact that it's hard to see anything in a positive frame of mind.  I dislike being in that frame of mind

On Sunday, we sang the linked song in worship service, we sang the words - "How many times have I cried out, God, please [save me]?...how many times have you given me strength to just keep breathing?..."

I thought to myself at that moment - how many times HAVE I cried out?  Countless.  And how many times has he given me the strength?  Every.single.time.  Every time I have cried out, he's given me strength.  Wow.  Who else has done that for me? Rhetorical question, since no one has.  No human has the capacity to do so.

Some may wonder why I have faith in a God I cannot see, when things just keep happening and happening with no end in sight.  I can understand the skepticism, but my answer to why I still believe is simple - I'm still here.  Every time I cry out, he gives me strength.

That answer - I'm still here- may seem too simplistic for a skeptic, but to me there is such beauty and meaning in its simplicity.  And from there, I draw my next breath, and press on.  As I press on, I see that I am doing more than just breathing, I'm actually progressing nicely in quite a few areas.  That gives me more strength and more hope.

It's not how many times you fall down, it's how many times you get up.  Someone said that, I know not who, but it's true and for me, the strength to get up again comes from God.

~Lamentations 3:21-23 New Living Translation (NLT)
Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.