MUCH AS I have tried, I have learned that the Christian life can’t be reduced to a three-step formula. It’s less plug-and-play and more plod-and-pray. So, I don’t want to trivialize anyone’s hardships by suggesting I have the easy answer to their struggles.

Having said that, I do want to offer three suggestions for those who may be finding it hard to see signs of God’s goodness in their circumstances. May they be an exhortation or an encouragement to believe He is working in ways you may not yet see.

Remember the big picture. Or, as I heard it put recently, don’t put a period where God has only a comma. This is not the end, but a step in the journey: in Jeremiah 29:11, God says that His plans are “welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God is not the author of evil, He is the editor of it!

This can be harder for some of us to hold onto than others, depending on our disposition. Personally, I lean toward Eeyore-ness, so I have to work at taking a more optimistic outlook.

Remember He is near. No matter how far away God may seem, He has not abandoned you. In Isaiah 43:1-3, God says through the prophet, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Also, hold onto the last words of Matthew’s Gospel. As Jesus prepares to ascend to glory after commissioning His disciples to go into all the world, He promises, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20, emphasis added).

Remember to worship. This may be the toughest of all, but God is unchanging. So He is always worthy of praise, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Hebrews 13:15 talks about offering “a sacrifice of praise to God”—and when we worship in spite of our circumstances we are walking by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

All praise is sweet to God’s ears, but I wonder whether praise that comes from a broken and bruised heart is somehow sweeter than that which comes from a grateful heart. I think of the time when Marcia and I were in church and a member of the congregation we knew came in late and sat in the corner of the back row, crumpled and deflated. She didn’t move throughout the entire service, and we went over to her at the end to see how she was.

She told us that her husband had died unexpectedly the night before. She didn’t know what to do, she said; she just knew she needed to be in God’s presence. Sometimes, that’s all we can bring: ourselves, in all our need and weakness.