On the Road to Holy

When I had to take a sabbatical from working and receive ongoing treatments at a Lyme center in Huntington, New York, I honestly felt like my life was taking many steps backward. In some ways, I felt like a teenager living at home again with my parents and relying on them to take care of me. It was HARD, and it was HUMBLING.

If you are in that season right now, my biggest piece of advice would be to fully embrace it. Allow God to do the work in and through you in that broken, but beautiful, place. It is the hard that makes us holy. Easy does not typically produce growth. It is difficulty that challenges us to press in to Jesus.

James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (ESV). During a season of hard, you will most likely feel humbled in many different ways. One of the things I have learned is that a humble and contrite heart is what God seems to want the most. Maybe it is because He knows if we are not relying on our own strength and abilities, then we will be resting and relying on Him.

I have noticed something. Most people I know who are making big splashes in the kingdom of God and seeing good fruit in their lives all have this one thing in common: God entrusted them to walk through a hard season that caused them to be humbled in many ways. There is a pruning that happens when we are walking through a difficult situation, which causes the dead and dying things in our lives to fall to the ground and be stripped away. If you are being humbled in a particular area, do not resist it but rather lean even further into the ways that God is shaping you through that challenging time. Our roots are forced to grow deeper when things are being shaken up on the surface. Most of the time, God is cutting off the branches in our lives that are not bearing the best fruit. Yield instead of resisting and rest instead of striving if you find yourself in this place.

One of the most powerful things my pastor once said to me was, “It’s okay to tell God how you really feel about something.” The truth is, He already knows everything that is going on in our hearts because He created them. He knows our thoughts before we even think them, and He knows our words before we speak them. So, pour it all out to Him. Then, ask Him this question: “What in this hard situation are You trying to do to make me more holy?” Sit with that thought and see how He responds.

Don’t give in to the temptation to set up camp in the defeat, disappointment, guilt, shame, or whatever you are facing. Allow the Holy Spirit to help you to move through it and to keep running when you feel like retreating. You might be wondering how that’s possible when the circumstances don’t seem to be changing. Well, that, my friend, is where the real work comes in. Your heart posture will shift, your perspective will begin to change, and your surrender will cause the situation to seem lighter even while you’re still in the trenches.

The grace of God that allowed me to endure those months of medical treatments is the only reason I made it through. On the first day, they told me I would have to cut out all meat for a season. I remember thinking, I am sick and now you want me to be a vegan!? It was challenging, but God used that short time of refraining from meat to help my body detox faster and allow the procedures to be more effective.

The hard can make us holy and, in my case, healthy. There are traits like perseverance and godly character that are fortified deep in us when we go through the fire. That cannot happen when everything is perfect on the mountaintop.

Start looking at the challenges in your life as a possible part of the bigger plan. Your purpose might take on a new direction as God uses those things to help other people walk through what you did.

Take a moment now to close your eyes. I want you to picture yourself on the other side of that trial or situation you are facing. Invite God in and ask him how to get there. Some of the best tools you have are praying, getting into the Word for God’s direction, spending time in worship, and surrounding yourself with faith-filled friends who will cheer you on and not allow you to quit. Ask God to give you your own blueprint.

If you feel like raising the white flag, don’t. Don’t give up before it gets good. I promise, your story is still being written.

Tune in to hear Jaime Jamgochian this Monday on LIFE TODAY. Excerpted from Sacred Surrender © 2025 Jaime Jamgochian. Used by permission of David C Cook. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.