When Life Gets Hard, Stand Firm
Practical reminders from 1 Peter for growing your faith, enduring difficult seasons, and trusting the God who will never fail you.

Tim Dye • Lead Pastor
August 7, 2026

3 Minute Read

I have to admit that some seasons in life are harder than others. At first when I first came to faith in Jesus, I developed a super hero mindset that viewed hardship as something I was going to be immune from. Funny this is, I thought that being a Christian meant that I was not ever going to actually have to stand firm in times of my life. Somehow in my little christian bubble, i hadn’t fully realized that the muscle of faith grows in hardship. 

For so many of us here at Freedom, this has been a season of difficulties. From accepting the fact that change is happening and going through health battles to trusting God for what you can’t see in the here and now. I see you, friends. Navigating through trials is never easy and now in my life I see just how important it is to find inspiration.  Listen, in the midst of struggle, we must find inspiration that develops our faith. 

So what do we do when life is hard and things don’t seem to be going like we think they should? I offer a simple yet practical guide for giving us motivation to stand firm. 

The Apostle Peter writes to the first century followers of Christ in an attempt to strengthen them from turning back, surrendering and giving in. Here is my reminder to you from 1 Peter:

He’s reminding the believers that God’s great mercy through Christ is proof that they are born again and have a priceless inheritance. This is kept in heaven for us and it’s beyond change and decay! 

Trials reveal a faith that is genuine. He says’ “So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor…  Friends, we must have faith in the God who saves!  “Though you do not see Him now, you trust Him with a glorious, inexpressible joy”

After we commit our lives to Christ, we sometimes feel a pull back to our old ways. Simply put, our focus and priorities must be His. Rely on God’s power to free you from giving up and giving in so you can truly live to show others that God can be trusted. 

Recently God gave me a reminder to allow Christ to receive the glory of my sufferings. This is exactly what Peter is saying…”God is pleased with you”,  when we do this. Christ Jesus is our example who “left his case in the hands of God”. That is powerful. Can we just leave our case in the hands of God like Jesus did? Yes, we can! 

Let’s break up with a theology that thinks the Christian life is rainbows and butterflies. Don’t get me wrong, this life in Christ is the best decision that you will ever make but hear the last words of Peter from 1 Peter 4:19. “So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you”.

Peace to all of you, God’s word stands forever. 

Pastor Tim Dye

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From this Tag: Faith
October 7, 2026 • 6 Minute Read
You Were Made for More Than You Think
There is a quiet lie that many believers carry with them into every week. It whispers that your life is essentially the sum of your commute, your paycheck, your routine, and your struggles. It tells you that church is something you attend, faith is something you hold privately, and that the work of building the kingdom belongs to someone else, someone more qualified, more gifted, more available. It is a convincing lie. And it is wrong. The truth is far more compelling. You are an inseparable part of what God is doing in the earth right now. Not someday. Now. The House God Is Building Long before there were modern church buildings with coffee bars and production lighting, there was a people. They were called people of the way. After the events of Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit descended and ignited something that could not be contained, these men and women began to spread a message that changed the world. They did it not because an institution demanded it, but because the Spirit of God had set something alive inside them. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus from a Roman prison cell, was trying to articulate something that generation needed to hear, and that we still need to hear today. In Ephesians 4, verses 14 through 16, he describes a body that is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, growing and building itself up in love as each part does its work. Every part. Not a few dedicated parts. Every part. God never designed the church to be a house where a handful of people do all the work while everyone else watches. He designed it to be a living body, and a body does not function when only one part is active. The Construction Crew Problem Imagine walking onto a construction site and finding twenty people sitting in lawn chairs while one exhausted worker carries lumber, runs electrical wiring, frames walls, lays flooring, and hangs drywall all by himself. You ask what is going on, and someone cheerfully tells you they are building a house. When you ask who is building it, they point to the one man drenched in sweat. That is not a construction crew. That is one exhausted person with an audience. It is also, if we are honest, a painfully accurate picture of how many churches function today. A pastor, a handful of leaders, a faithful few volunteers, and a congregation of observers. Paul would not recognize that as the body he described. A body does not have one functioning part. It has hands, feet, eyes, ears, joints, and muscles, and every single one of them has a purpose that contributes to the whole. Walking Worthy Is Not a Solo Act In Ephesians 4, verse 1, Paul urges believers to walk in a manner worthy of the calling they have received. We tend to read that as a personal challenge about individual behavior, a reminder to be moral, to be kind, to represent Christ well in our private lives. But that reading strips the verse of its full meaning. Walking worthy, in the context Paul is writing, is not something you do alone. It is something you do with the body. With humility, gentleness, and patience. Bearing with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. The worthy walk is fleshed out in community, in commitment, in the sometimes uncomfortable and always refining work of doing life together with other believers. God does not call the individual believer to go off alone, work out their character in isolation, and return when they have it figured out. He works out character in and through the body of Christ. The friction, the forgiveness, the bearing with one another, that is not a flaw in the design. That is the design. Every Part Has a Purpose Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, that Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for a specific reason: to equip the saints for the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ might be built up. The offices exist not to do the work for everyone else, but to equip everyone else to do the work. This means the ministry belongs to you. The question is not whether you have a role. You do. The question is whether you know what it is and whether you are willing to step into it. Verse 16 contains a thought that should stop every believer in their tracks. The body grows as each part does its work. Not as the pastor works harder. Not as the most gifted people carry more of the load. As each part does its share. The growth of the church is directly tied to the participation of every member. When parts sit idle, growth is stunted. When every part functions, something remarkable happens. The Cafeteria Moment Consider what it looks like in the most ordinary of settings. Someone stops in a hospital cafeteria to grab a quick lunch before visiting a sick friend from church. A stranger sits down at the same table, and in the course of a brief, unplanned conversation, tears fall. A woman carrying the weight of her own medical scans pauses, looks at the situation of the person being visited, and says quietly that she counts her blessings today. That moment did not happen because someone had a strategy. It happened because someone showed up. Because someone chose to be present, to be available, to let their agenda become God's agenda for the hour. That is the church without walls. That is what it looks like when a member of the body simply does their part. Your Part Is Needed Three questions are worth sitting with this week. First, what has God placed in you? Every believer has been gifted by God to serve the body of Christ. Second, who can you build up this week? Who is stronger because you showed up, served, and loved? Third, where is your place? God has something in you that his house genuinely needs. You are not an observer. You are not an audience member. You are a member of the body, and the body needs you to function. Do not waste the life you have been given. You were made for more.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

September 30, 2026 • 6 Minute Read
Strength From the Inside Out
There is a difference between a house that looks strong and a house that actually is strong. That difference is not always visible from the outside. It lives in the joints, the roots, the foundation — the parts no one sees until the storm arrives. In 1995, an architect made a terrifying discovery about a skyscraper he had designed years earlier in Manhattan. The building was striking - 59 stories of glass and steel, an engineering marvel that sat on four massive pillars positioned along the sides of the structure rather than at its corners. Years after construction, a routine question from an engineering student prompted the architect to recalculate the building's wind load. What he found was alarming. The contractors had used bolt joints instead of welded joints in the load-bearing pillars. A significant storm with quartering winds would cause those bolts to shear, the pillars to buckle, and the entire tower to collapse onto the streets of Manhattan. Rather than hide the flaw, the architect coordinated a quiet, months-long emergency operation. Welding crews worked through the night, reinforcing every weak joint with thick steel plates until the structure could bear the pressure it was always meant to hold. This is a picture of what God is doing in the lives of his people right now. The Prayer That Changes Everything In Ephesians 3:14-21, the apostle Paul writes one of the most remarkable prayers in all of Scripture. He is under house arrest in Rome, writing in chains, facing an uncertain outcome. And yet his posture is not anxiety. It is not complaint. He kneels. That single word - kneel - carries enormous weight. It reveals everything about where Paul believes his strength comes from. If a person believes that everything depends on themselves, they stand in pride and self-reliance. But if a person believes that everything depends on God, they kneel. The posture of a life reveals the source it trusts. Paul's prayer is not a request for better circumstances. He is not asking God to remove the chains or change the political climate. He is praying that God would strengthen his people with power through his Spirit in their inner being. He is praying that Christ would dwell - not visit, but dwell - in the hearts of believers through faith. He is praying that they would be rooted and grounded in love. This is the kind of prayer the church desperately needs to recover. Strength Begins on the Inside One of the most persistent temptations in the Christian life is to look for strength in the wrong places. More resources. More programs. More activity. More recognition. More control. The assumption is that if we can make the house bigger, it will become stronger. But God is not interested in the size of the house. He is interested in the depth of the people inside it. Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16 is that God would grant his people to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in their inner being. Not first in their circumstances. Not first in their finances or influence. In their inner being. This is a profound distinction. Much of modern life — and much of modern Christianity — is built on the exterior. We are shaped by what we see, what we want, what others think of us. But God says there is a place on the inside that he wants to reinforce. A place where no one else gets a vote on who you are. A place where God speaks his truth over you regardless of what the world is saying around you. Christ is not looking for visitation. He is looking for habitation. The goal is not that Jesus would show up occasionally when circumstances are desperate. The goal is that Christ would be at home — dwelling — in the hearts of his people through faith. Roots That Go Deep Enough Paul uses two powerful images when he describes what a spiritually strong life looks like. The first is agricultural: roots growing downward into the soil, like a tree. The second is architectural: a foundation going deep into the ground, like a building. Both images point to the same reality. Stability is not found at the surface. It is found in depth. There is a concept in foundation work that speaks to this directly. When the ground is unstable, engineers must drill down past the disturbed soil — past all the shifting, settling, unreliable earth — until they reach undisturbed soil. In some cases, that means going thirty feet down. Only then can a foundation hold. This is exactly what God is calling his people to. If life feels shaky, if circumstances feel chaotic, if you are constantly tossed by whatever is happening around you, the answer is not to rearrange the surface. The answer is to go deeper. Disturbed soil shakes. Undisturbed soil holds. And what is that undisturbed soil? Paul names it directly. Love. The love of Christ. He prays that believers would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is — a love that surpasses knowledge, a love that keeps, sustains, forms, finds, seeks, and empowers. This is not sentiment. This is the load-bearing wall of everything God is building. The Future Belongs to the Rooted Paul closes his prayer with a burst of praise that has echoed through centuries. He declares in Ephesians 3:20 that God is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us. Not around us. Within us. The future of any life, any family, any community of faith is not determined by what is happening externally. It is determined by what is happening internally. Information can fill a mind without changing a life. But transformation — the kind that comes from being so deeply rooted in the love of Christ that it becomes the foundation from which you live — that changes everything. The question worth sitting with today is simple but searching: What are your roots in? If they are in circumstances, circumstances will change. If they are in people's approval, people will fail you. If they are in success, success will eventually give way to suffering. But if the roots go down into the love of Christ, they reach something that never moves, never fails, and never runs out. That is the house God is building. And he is building it from the inside out.Request prayer

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor

August 10, 2026 • 5 Minute Read
August 10-14
5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide – August 10-14 “From Comfort to Commendation — Becoming a Vessel for the Living God” Day 1: The God Who Manifests Himself; Reading: Exodus 3:1-14 Devotional: God did not wait for Moses to conjure a religious experience. He showed up in an ordinary place and made it extraordinary. The burning bush was not a trick or a spectacle — it was the manifest presence of a God who refuses to remain distant when he has a purpose to accomplish. The great I Am revealed himself not because Moses had earned it, but because God initiates. Examine where you have been waiting for a feeling or a formula before drawing near to God. He is already present. The question is whether you are paying attention. Reflection: Where in your daily life might God be manifesting himself that you have overlooked because it seemed too ordinary? Application: Set aside ten minutes today in silence. Ask God to make his presence known, and resist the urge to fill the quiet with noise or distraction. Day 2: The Danger of Comfort; Reading: Revelation 3:14-22 Devotional: The letter to the church at Laodicea is one of the most sobering passages in all of Scripture. God does not commend their comfort — he confronts it. A church that is neither cold nor hot has made peace with mediocrity and called it stability. Comfort is not inherently sinful, but when comfort becomes the standard by which we measure our obedience, we have replaced the living God with a manageable one. The same God who confronted the seven churches in Revelation is still in the business of confrontation. He does not do it to shame you. He does it because he loves you enough to call you higher. Reflection: In what area of your spiritual life have you settled for comfort rather than pressing deeper into obedience? Application: Identify one habit or routine that has kept your faith shallow. Commit to replacing it this week with something that requires genuine trust in God. Day 3: Weapons That Are Not Worldly; Reading: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 Devotional: Paul's appeal to the Corinthian church is urgent and personal. He understands that the greatest battles believers face are not fought with strategy, influence, or intellect. They are fought through prayer, obedience, and the demolition of every thought that sets itself against the knowledge of God. Opinions rooted in self-preservation, denominational habit, or fear are strongholds just as much as any obvious sin. Taking every thought captive is not passive — it is an act of spiritual warfare. The mind that is surrendered to Christ becomes a weapon against the very lies that once imprisoned it. Reflection: What recurring thought pattern most consistently pulls you away from full trust in God? Application: Write down one thought that has been resisting God's work in your life. Pray over it specifically and declare it surrendered to the obedience of Christ. Day 4: Stepping Out of the Boat; Reading: Matthew 14:22-33 Devotional: Peter did not step out of the boat because conditions were favorable. He stepped out because he heard the voice of Jesus and chose to respond. The moment his attention shifted from the voice to the waves, he began to sink. This is the pattern of every believer who starts well and falters — not because God moved, but because the noise of circumstance grew louder than the word that called them forward. Faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is the decision to move toward the voice of God even when every opinion you hold tells you to stay seated in the boat. Reflection: What is the boat you are currently unwilling to step out of, and what is the voice of God saying to you about it? Application: Take one concrete step today toward something God has been calling you to do that you have been delaying out of fear or comfort. Day 5: Boasting in the Lord — Walking Without Contradiction; Reading: 2 Corinthians 10:12-18 Devotional: Paul warns against the trap of self-commendation. A life measured against itself will always find a way to justify its own limitations. The standard is not what others are doing or what we have already accomplished — the standard is the Lord himself, and the commendation that matters is his alone. The church that wants to grow must first become what it proclaims. Faith that increases in private will always enlarge the ministry in public. There is no version of authentic witness that tolerates contradiction between Sunday confession and Monday conduct. The God who commended Abraham, Moses, and Peter is ready to commend you. Reflection: Where does your private life contradict what you profess publicly about your faith? Application: Choose one area where your words and your actions have not aligned. Make a specific, measurable commitment to close that gap this week and ask a trusted believer to hold you accountable.Share Your Prayer Request

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August 7, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
When Life Gets Hard, Stand Firm
I have to admit that some seasons in life are harder than others. At first when I first came to faith in Jesus, I developed a super hero mindset that viewed hardship as something I was going to be immune from. Funny this is, I thought that being a Christian meant that I was not ever going to actually have to stand firm in times of my life. Somehow in my little christian bubble, i hadn’t fully realized that the muscle of faith grows in hardship. For so many of us here at Freedom, this has been a season of difficulties. From accepting the fact that change is happening and going through health battles to trusting God for what you can’t see in the here and now. I see you, friends. Navigating through trials is never easy and now in my life I see just how important it is to find inspiration.  Listen, in the midst of struggle, we must find inspiration that develops our faith. So what do we do when life is hard and things don’t seem to be going like we think they should? I offer a simple yet practical guide for giving us motivation to stand firm. The Apostle Peter writes to the first century followers of Christ in an attempt to strengthen them from turning back, surrendering and giving in. Here is my reminder to you from 1 Peter: Live with great expectation. (1 Peter 1:3-4) He’s reminding the believers that God’s great mercy through Christ is proof that they are born again and have a priceless inheritance. This is kept in heaven for us and it’s beyond change and decay! Joy is ahead. (1 Peter 1:6-8) Trials reveal a faith that is genuine. He says’ “So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor…  Friends, we must have faith in the God who saves!  “Though you do not see Him now, you trust Him with a glorious, inexpressible joy” Don’t slip back into your old ways of living. (1 Peter 1:14-16) After we commit our lives to Christ, we sometimes feel a pull back to our old ways. Simply put, our focus and priorities must be His. Rely on God’s power to free you from giving up and giving in so you can truly live to show others that God can be trusted. Suffer for good and endure it patiently. (1 Peter 2:20-21) Recently God gave me a reminder to allow Christ to receive the glory of my sufferings. This is exactly what Peter is saying…”God is pleased with you”,  when we do this. Christ Jesus is our example who “left his case in the hands of God”. That is powerful. Can we just leave our case in the hands of God like Jesus did? Yes, we can! Let’s break up with a theology that thinks the Christian life is rainbows and butterflies. Don’t get me wrong, this life in Christ is the best decision that you will ever make but hear the last words of Peter from 1 Peter 4:19. “So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you”. Peace to all of you, God’s word stands forever. Pastor Tim Dye

Tim Dye

Lead Pastor