Diamonds are valuable because of what they go through to become diamonds. We have inherent value because of our Maker, and oftentimes the pressure reveals not what is in us but what is in God. That’s when we find out what we are made of, but also what God is made of.

If I had my way, I’d settle for a pressure-free existence. I’d rather not have any hardships or go through any trials. But God knows better than I what is best for me and what will make me more like Jesus. So I can trust God’s plans that I may or may not fully understand at the moment. I can trust the heart of God when I can’t see His hand at work.

Jesus said that it’s not a matter of if but when that we will have suffering and trials. But He also said that He’d be with us through the worst of it. He said that the end result will make whatever we go through to get there so much more than worth it.

“Now I’m just an old chunk of coal
But I’m gonna be a diamond some day
I’m gonna grow and glow ’til I’m so blue pure perfect
I’m gonna put a smile on everybody’s face

I’m gonna kneel and pray every day
At least I should become vain along the way
Hey, I’m just an old chunk of coal now Lord
But I’m gonna be a diamond some day” (Billy Shaver).

This will resonate with some of you reading these words. You don’t ever want to be a burden to anyone, so you suffer silently and alone. Sometimes, you even think that telling God would make you a burden.

The lie from the pit of hell is that you are alone in your suffering. The lie is that you are a burden and no one needs or wants to know about your ailments or afflictions or griefs. The devil wants you keep you isolated and by yourself.

The truth of the matter is that in the body of Christ, no one is a burden. We are actually commanded to bear each other’s burdens, so by keeping yours to yourself, you might be depriving someone else of the joy of sharing your load.

The reality is that every one of us is flawed and broken. We all have scars. We all carry griefs and sorrows. We weren’t meant to carry those alone but in context of community.

Above all, Jesus invites us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. That’s where the real healing comes from. That’s where the real peace comes from. You are not a burden to Jesus. He wants you to bring anything and everything to Him.

“Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be” (Oswald Chambers).

Romans 12:1-2 talks about us offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God as our act of worship. As the old joke goes, the only problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off of the altar.

I think dying to self is a daily thing. Jesus died once and for all, but we don’t. We must put our flesh to death every single day or we will give in to it. We also must take up our cross daily and die to our own expectations of how our lives should go and how we want to live instead of how God calls us to live.

The good news is that God doesn’t see the imperfect sacrifice that just crawled off of the altar yet again. He sees the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, accomplished once for all time. He doesn’t see all the times I failed but the sinless life of His Son Jesus.

The irony of the gospel is that it’s those who seek to lose their life who get to keep it. Those who try to hold on to their life end up losing it. Those who try to become their authentic self become a shallow parody of someone else. Those who live in surrender and try to become more like Jesus really do find their truest selves in the process.

It’s about dying to live. It’s about surrendering to become truly free.

“One act of thanksgiving, when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations” (Saint John of Avila).

That’s the litmus test, isn’t it? It’s not how loud you can praise God when everything’s going right and all your traffic lights are green. It’s when you’re in a valley or going through an illness or suffering and can still sing a hallelujah that you show where your allegiance truly lies.

The best kind of testimony is to have everything go wrong and still say with Job, “Yet though He slay me, still will I trust in Him.”

Jesus said when you suffer, not if. The expectation is that suffering and hardships are inevitable not optional. You will have trials. You will suffer. But you won’t be alone.

People expect Christians to hate those who hate them, but when those believers can love their enemies just as Jesus commanded, the world takes notice.

People expect Christians to complain or give up when their world collapses, but when the true followers of Jesus can still praise God in the midst of suffering and pain, people watching know that their faith is real and the hope they offer is real.

No one ever chooses hardship. No one ever wants suffering. But those who go through the valley with even the tiniest amount of faith find that God is with them every single step of the way.

“God, our good Father, will either give us what we ask for, or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows” (Timothy Keller)

The basic idea of prayer isn’t giving God information that He doesn’t already know. It’s about presenting your information before God and learning to see it from His point of view.

Your problem doesn’t change because of prayer as much as you do. Your perspective does. Your way of looking at your problem does.

I know in my own life that sometimes I ask for the wrong thing. It’s not a God-glorifying request but rather one that caters to my fleshly appetites and would probably destroy me if I got it.

Sometimes, I ask for things that are too small. God is thinking bigger than my own little world. He’s thinking about the whole world and filling heaven with worshippers from every tribe, tongue, and race.

Sometimes, I don’t get what I ask for when I ask for it because I’m not ready for it. Getting the right thing at the wrong time can be just as bad as getting the wrong thing.

Really, prayer isn’t about getting from God as it is getting to know God. Then you start thinking differently and asking for different things. The more you know God, the less you want from God and the more you simply want God.

“What confuses the enemy is when you keep worshiping with a broken heart, keep praying when you feel empty, and keep trusting God even when nothing makes sense.

That kind of faith moves mountains and makes hell tremble” (Nii A Okromansah, Jr).

I think it comes down to a determination to worship no matter what. It’s about choosing to believe even when believing doesn’t make sense. It’s about following even if it means following alone.

Even when falling away seems like a good option, we can declare with Peter, ““Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69, NLT).

The best kind of testimony is to have your world falling apart and still be able to worship. To have no visible signs of God’s presence and still keep praying. To look at the total chaos of the world and your world and keep trusting.

I think you can’t wait until the crisis comes to decide you want that kind of faith. You have to build up the disciplines while the days are good before life gets too hard. You have to surrender and learn to die you yourself daily before the storm comes.

Most of all, no matter what kind of faith you have or discipline you’ve developed, the only way truly to survive is to fall on the grace of God and into the waiting open arms of Jesus. That’s the only way.