When God Uses the Hard Seasons

by Torrie Slaughter

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Psalm 119:65–80

Some verses feel like a fresh breeze. Others feel like a mirror. This portion of Psalm 119 does both—it reminds us that God is good, and then it gently shows us how He uses every season, including the difficult ones, to shape our hearts.

God Has Been Good—Even When Life Hasn’t

“You have dealt well with your servant.”
The psalmist starts with gratitude, not because life was easy, but because God was faithful. His Word becomes the lens that clarifies every circumstance—past, present, and future.

Pause for a moment:
Where have you seen God’s goodness—even in places you didn’t understand at first?

Affliction Can Become Your Teacher

“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
This is the verse we don’t want, but deeply need. The psalmist isn’t glamorizing hardship—he’s recognizing its purpose. Affliction becomes the pressure that drives him back into the arms of God and deeper into the truth of Scripture.

Hard seasons don’t come to destroy you… they come to develop you.

Consider today:
What challenge might God be using to sharpen your discernment or redirect your steps?

God’s Love Is Your Safe Place

“May your unfailing love be my comfort.”
The psalmist doesn’t ask God to erase the hard moments—he asks for something better: His presence. God’s love becomes the comfort that settles the heart and the strength that steadies the soul.

When life feels crowded with loud opinions or the pressure of being misunderstood, His promises become the quiet room where peace grows.

A gentle reminder:
Run to God’s Word for comfort before you run to anything else.

The Word Shapes Your Heart, Not Your Circumstances

This section ends with a desire for deeper understanding and sincerity of heart. The psalmist wants to be shaped from the inside out—not by affliction, not by pride around him, but by the steady truth of Scripture.

🔥Encouragement

Psalm 119:65–80 invites you to stop seeing your trials as interruptions and begin seeing them as invitations—back to trust, back to wisdom, back to the unfailing love of God. The hard seasons don’t make you weaker; they make you wiser, humbler, and more rooted in God’s Word.