Life is hard. We keep wanting it to work better, feel better, be better, but in many ways, life is just hard. On a good day, there is always something else to think about and plan for. On a hard day, well . . . it is just hard. We lose sleep, or we wake up with our head full of worries or our heart pounding. We can’t relax, and we don’t know why. Our stomach gets all gnarled up. We can’t focus. And the sources for our anxiety are endless. We worry about our future and our finances. We have fears over our children’s safety and their spiritual life. We get discouraged because of jobs that feel futile and seem like a dead-end. There’s death and disease in those that we love. And this is just discouragement over things in our life situation, things that are simply part of living in a fallen world. There is also discouragement that comes from our own sins and failures, regrets over the past, hurts that we have caused and we can’t undo.

So, what is the source of our worry and anxiety and discouragement?

Well, certainly it is the situations themselves. But really, it is what we believe about those situations that causes our problems. Let me just come right out and say it. A main reason we get discouraged is because we believe lies. Satan, who is the Father of Lies, whispers lies into the ear of our soul. He uses words, words that are untrue, but words that seem to resonate with reality. He describes to us our reality, but he does so disregarding the reality of God in our life. He whispers into the ear of our soul statements like this. “You know, this situation will never change. You can’t see how it will change, can you? You’ve really screwed things up. She’ll never forgive you. And she really shouldn’t, after what you have done.” Or: “You really are a failure. People tell you otherwise, but they are just being nice. If you weren’t a failure, then you wouldn’t be in this situation. If you were smarter, stronger, a better leader, more decisive, then things wouldn’t be the way they are. But they are hopeless, because you are a failure.” Or: “This is the way it is. You are just going to have to get used to a life like this. It will never get any better. You’re not happy, and really, you never will be, because this situation is not going to change. This is it.”

You see, Satan doesn’t deny the truth. That is not his lie. His lie is what he wants us to believe about the truth. Satan doesn’t deny our sin, nor does he deny the sin that we have experienced from others, nor does he deny the hardships of living in this world. Instead he takes the reality of our situation and he tries to make us believe that that reality will never change. In other words, he wants us to forget about the character and nature of God. He discounts the gospel, because the gospel is all about change. He wants us to believe that the cross is not powerful enough to redeem the difficulties in the world, the diseases of our body, the destruction in our relationships. He never puts it that bluntly, because as believers we know in our head that the cross is powerful. But he uses enough words and he uses the right words to keep our attention on our situation and off the cross. He wants us to think of things on earth and not on things of heaven. He capitalizes on our sin or on our hardships and he tries to make us believe that that is the only reality there is. Satan wants us to stay focused on your physical realities so that you will forget us spiritual realities.

The Bible speaks to this. In 1 John 2:15, John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Satan wants us to focus on the world and the things of the world. He wants us to find our joy and our contentment and our fulfillment from the things of the world, not the things of heaven. He wants us to believe that when the things of the world let us down and don’t provide joy and contentment and fulfillment, that there is no chance of ever experiencing joy and contentment and fulfillment. He wants us to focus on the earthly and the physical and the temporary, not the heavenly and spiritual and the eternal. If we love the world, then the love of the Father is not in us. In other words, if our love is caught up in the things of the world, then we are not going to know how much the Father loves us. Do you see that contrast? If we love the world, then there’s no room in our heart for us to be satisfied by God’s love for us. If what we want are earthly blessings—a better job, a better spouse, better children, better finances—then the promise of God’s love seems shallow and unimportant and not that big of a deal.

Satan wants us to focus on a reality without the cross, without the supernatural, without the promises of God. He wants us to view our situation as unredeemable. Or he wants us to find our hope in a change in our situation. He wants us to play the “as soon as” game. “As soon as I get a new job, things will be better. As soon as we get past this stage in our lives, things will be easier.” Or he wants us to play the “if only” game. “If only my wife would respect me more, then things would be better.” “If only we had a little more money, then things would be better.” “If only I could believe that this or that would or wouldn’t happen to my children, then things would be better.” You see, that’s a reality without the cross. That’s a reality that doesn’t need Jesus to be joyful and content and fulfilled. That’s a reality that loves the world and the things of the world and finds its joy and contentment and fulfillment in the world. When we love the world, God’s love for us isn’t that impressive. Too often, what we really want is respect or love from our spouse, we want our children to behave and make us look good (or at least not embarrass us), we want answers to our deepest questions. Suddenly being accepted and approved of by our Heavenly Father is not as important as being accepted and approved of by other people. And God just sits up in heaven and shakes his head and says, “Why don’t you believe me when I tell you the truth? Why do you believe such lies? Why don’t you believe that I love you, and if you say that you do believe it, then why don’t you act like it?”

So, really, in our battle with anxiety and fear and discouragement our weapon is the cross. Viewing every situation through the lens of the cross, and the supernatural and the character of God, is the way to remind ourselves that God is about the business of redeeming all situations.