By EEW Magazine Online // Empowerment

How have you managed to take a licking and keep on ticking? Bend and not break? Bounce back after multiple setbacks?

That’s because you are resilient. But how did you get this way?

You have been learning over the years how to walk in the authority God has given you and maximize your potential. This has happened gradually, as God allowed you to go through painful experiences to shape, strengthen, and mature you.

It didn’t feel good, but God knows it’s impossible for anyone to be a conqueror with a defeatist mindset. He is aware that your reality can never exceed the level of your mentality.

Therefore, God has been stretching you and letting you go through uncomfortable
situations to increase your resilience, tenacity, inner-fortitude, gumption, and boldness.

When I was pregnant with my son, I experienced intense pain while carrying him. He was a big baby. So big, in fact, near the end of my final trimester, I couldn’t walk. The doctor said my body was having difficulty holding up under such a heavy load.

That was an understatement. My son dislocated my pelvis, requiring me to go to through weeks of therapy after giving birth. I thought that boy would kill me!

But I’m still here. Though he stretched me, and it hurt something awful, I got a chance to see my strength. I thought I wouldn’t bounce back, but I did.

Resilience is built over time through blood, sweat, and tears. It comes from stretching and sometimes suffering for a long time.

Can you identify the resilience-building seasons in your life? Can you remember a time when you were being pushed and tested? Is it happening right now?

Your most difficult moments prepare you for and propel you toward greater things; that’s why difficulties cannot be avoided. The gravest situations help you make the greatest strides. What hurts the worst helps the most when it comes to perseverance.

Like an athlete enduring grueling training and showing up rain or shine, you have kept going in all seasons, good and bad, contributing to your resilience and growth.

The reason you’re so strong already is because you’ve been submitting to divine conditioning—and it shows. Don’t stop doing the work of surrendering. God’s word already declares that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).

As circumstances squeeze you, the strength, courage, gifts, and talents hidden within will continue pouring out.