My wife and I have been talking about things that we've been praying about and working through for a very long time. There are times when almost everything seems to be more difficult than we think it should be. During these times it can feel like no one who can or will help is near. It's easy to become calloused from pushing through hard times and grinding days out, just getting things done that need to be done. Sometimes it feels like we can't gain any ground because we spend all of our time just putting out new fires that spring up. In times like these, what becomes of the work that God has called us to do? In times like these, the Lord's men will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
God knows what it's like to suffer as we do. Jesus was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried" (Isaiah 53:3-4). The man who knows God Himself and is known by Him is the man who will stand when hard times crush men who live according to the flesh. The man who loves the Lord knows the joy of the Lord, not a feeling but a knowledge. Yes, we still have natural emotional responses to our circumstances. We still become angry, but in our anger we don't have to sin. We still grieve, but not as those do who have no hope.
"Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. he who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalms 126:5-6). "For the joy set before Him [Jesus] endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2). For the joy of the Lord we can get up before the sun and go to work where the pressure's on and know that we serve the Lord as His ambassadors to those in our lives.