You’re scrolling through Instagram again. Another engagement announcement. Another promotion post. Another friend buying their first car, moving into their own place, launching their business, traveling abroad.
And you? You’re counting the days until your next salary. You’re still living at home. You’re job hunting for the third month straight. You’re watching everyone else move forward while you feel completely stuck, praying the same prayers, asking God the same questions: “When is it my turn? Did You forget about me?”
If this is you, can I just say something? Trusting God during hard times as a young adult is one of the hardest things you will ever do. Not because God isn’t faithful; He is. But because the gap between what He promised and what you’re currently living can feel unbearable.
You’re not failing. You’re not behind. And this hard season, as painful as it is right now it won’t last forever.
This is for the young adult who’s barely holding on. The one whose account balance makes them anxious. The one who’s tired of being told to “just be patient.” The one who loves God but is struggling to see His hand in this season.
I see you. God sees you. And I believe there’s something He wants you to understand about where you are right now.
Why Trusting God During Hard Times Feels So Heavy
Let me be honest with you: financial struggle as a young adult is HARD. Not just because of the practical limitations, though those are very real, but because of what it does to your soul.
It’s waking up with a knot in your stomach because rent is due and you don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s declining invitations because you can’t afford to go out, then feeling isolated and left behind. It’s being talented, educated, hardworking, yet watching opportunities slip through your fingers for reasons completely outside your control.
And the worst part? The comparison spiral. The voice that whispers: “Everyone else is moving forward. What is wrong with you? Why are you still here?”
If you’re in this place, I want you to know: what you’re feeling is valid. The struggle is real. The pain is legitimate. But there is something powerful God is doing in this season that you cannot yet see.
What the Bible Says About Trusting God During Hard Times
Every significant person in Scripture went through a season that looked like “behind”, but was actually “preparation.” The waiting wasn’t a mistake. It was part of the plan.
Joseph: When Trusting God Looks Like a Prison Cell
Joseph was seventeen when God gave him dreams of greatness. But what followed wasn’t immediate elevation. It was betrayal by his brothers, slavery, false accusation, and prison, thirteen years between the dream and its fulfillment.
Imagine being Joseph at twenty-five. His brothers had normal lives. And him? Locked in an Egyptian prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
But here’s what Joseph couldn’t see: every season was positioning him. The pit taught him humility. Prison taught him to interpret dreams. Each “setback” was actually a setup.
When Pharaoh finally called for him, Joseph was thirty years old (Genesis 41:46). Thirteen years of what looked like delay, but was actually preparation. And in one single day, everything changed.
David: When God’s Promise Seems Forgotten
David was anointed king as a teenager. The prophet poured oil on his head; God’s chosen one. Then he went back to tending sheep. And when he finally left the fields, it wasn’t to sit on a throne. It was to run for his life from King Saul for years — hiding in caves, leading a group of struggling men, wondering if God’s promise would ever come.
His age mates had normal, stable lives. And David? He was anointed but living like a fugitive. Those wilderness years, though, taught him dependence on God, how to lead, how to worship in the dark. When he finally became king at thirty (2 Samuel 5:4), he was the man Israel needed, not just a warrior, but a true worshiper.
Your wilderness years are not wasted years. They’re the years that build the person God needs you to be for what’s next.
What God Is Actually Doing When You’re Trusting Him During Hard Times
Here’s what I’m learning: hard seasons are not punishment. They’re not proof that God forgot you. They’re preparation. Let me show you what the difficulty is doing in you right now.
1. Hard Times Reveal Whether Your Faith Is Real
When money is tight and nothing is working, you discover really quickly whether your joy is circumstantial or Christ-centered. When everyone else seems ahead, you find out whether your identity is in your achievements or in who Christ says you are.
James 1:2-4 tells us that the testing of your faith produces perseverance — and that perseverance, when it finishes its work, makes you mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The hard season is doing something IN you that will prepare you for what God wants to do THROUGH you.
2. Hard Times Position You for Divine Connections
Joseph met the cupbearer in prison, the very person who would eventually connect him to Pharaoh. Ruth met Boaz in her season of poverty and widowhood. Moses encountered God in the wilderness while running from his past.
Sometimes God puts you in uncomfortable places because the connections, the character, and the clarity you need for your next season are only found there. Your “stuck” might actually be strategic.
3. Hard Times Keep You Dependent on God
There is something powerful about needing God completely. About being in a place where your degree isn’t enough, your talent isn’t enough, your hustle isn’t enough. That place of absolute dependence? That is where God shows up most powerfully.
Paul understood this. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
The very thing you’re embarrassed by, your struggle, your lack, your “not yet”; might be the exact space where God’s strength shows up most clearly.
Practical Ways to Keep Trusting God During Hard Times as a Young Adult
Perspective shift matters. But you also need practical help for right now. Here’s what to actually do while you’re in this season:
1. Stop the Comparison — It’s Stealing Your Peace
Delete apps if you need to. Unfollow accounts that trigger comparison. Remember: social media is everyone’s highlight reel, not their reality. Galatians 6:4 says each person should evaluate their own actions without comparing themselves to someone else.
Their timeline is not your timeline. Their journey is not your journey. God’s plan for your life doesn’t look like anyone else’s and that’s not a flaw, it’s a feature
2. Be Faithful With What You Have Right Now
Don’t despise the season of small beginnings. Joseph served faithfully in prison. David shepherded sheep well before he shepherded Israel.
Whatever is in your hand right now, use it. That skill, that small opportunity, that part-time gig, steward it well.
Luke 16:10 tells us that faithfulness in little leads to faithfulness in much. What you do in this small season determines what God can trust you with in the next big one.
3. Build Your Faith Deeper Than Your Resume
Use this season to develop spiritual depth that success and comfort often won’t give you. Pray not just for provision, but for character.
Read not just for career growth, but for spiritual growth. The person you’re becoming in this season matters far more than the position you’re trying to reach
4. Stay Connected — Don’t Isolate
Isolation makes everything worse. Don’t withdraw from friends because you’re ashamed of where you are. Don’t skip church because you can’t give offering. Find people who will pray with you and remind you of God’s promises when you forget.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says two are better than one, if either falls down, one can help the other up. You weren't designed to carry this alone.
What God Wants You to Know While You’re Trusting Him During This Hard Season
If you’re reading this while barely holding on, here’s what I believe God wants you to hear:
You are not forgotten. Isaiah 49:15-16 says God has engraved you on the palms of His hands. You are not an afterthought. You are not overlooked.
You are not behind. You’re exactly where you need to be for what God is preparing you for. Your journey is different, not delayed.
This season has purpose. Romans 8:28 reminds us He’s working ALL things together for good, even the things that feel like they’re working against you.
Your breakthrough is coming. It might not be tomorrow. But it is coming. And when it arrives, you’ll understand exactly why it had to happen this way
A PRAYER FOR YOU
If you’re struggling to pray right now, let me pray for you:
Father, for every young adult reading this who is trusting You during hard times, meet them right where they are. In their financial struggle, be their Provider. In their comparison, be their Identity. In their waiting, be their Peace. Remind them that You see them. That You have not forgotten them. That this season is not wasted. And when their breakthrough comes, and it will come, let them look back and see Your faithfulness in every step. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Trusting God During Hard Times Is Not Easy — But It Is Worth It
I don’t know when your breakthrough is coming. I don’t know exactly how God is going to turn things around. But I know He will.
I know because He’s done it before, for Joseph, for David, for Ruth, for countless others who felt stuck and forgotten until they weren’t.
Their stories didn’t end in the hard season. And yours won’t either.
So keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep working with what’s in your hand. Keep believing that God is working behind the scenes, even on the days when you can’t feel it or see it.
And on the days when you can’t believe anymore, let those of us who’ve walked this road believe for you, until you can believe for yourself.
You’re not failing. You’re not behind. You’re being prepared.
This hard season won’t last forever. Your morning is coming.
Let’s grow together 🤍
— Dorcas
