How God Carries Me Through Difficult Seasons

People often ask me how I get through difficult seasons, and my answer is usually simple:

God.

Sometimes people want more than that. They want steps. They want a formula. They want to know how God did it.

And I understand that because I don’t say things lightly. I don’t say “God did it” unless I’ve lived it, tested it, and watched it work in real time. If it didn’t work for me, I wouldn’t share it.

So this is how God has carried me through some of the hardest seasons of my life.

Not perfectly. Not neatly. But faithfully.

And it doesn’t start where most people expect.

1. I Start With Worship, Even When My Heart Isn’t Ready

When I’m going through it, I don’t start with prayer.

I start with worship.

I play worship songs, not one, but many, and I let them run for hours. My heart might not agree with the lyrics. I might be angry. I might be tired. I might feel empty or faithless.

But I stay.

Sometimes nothing speaks to me. Sometimes every song feels distant. But I remain in that space listening to other people testify, worship, and speak about what God has done for them.

Many worship songs are born out of pain, loss, waiting, or obedience. And even if all I can offer in that moment is silence or tears, that becomes my worship.

Staying is the first step.

2. I Run With Any Word That Comes My Way from people we share the same faith.

If someone shares a word with me, a verse, a thought, a song, a reminder, I don’t dismiss it.

Recently, my brother mentioned how he listens to the Bible while sleeping. One night, when I couldn’t rest, I tried it. I played Psalms as I lay down. I don’t think I made it past Psalms 1, but I slept peacefully through the night.

If someone sends me a verse, I sit with it.

If it’s a song, I play it, even if it doesn’t excite me.

Even if it feels boring. Even if nothing happens immediately.

I stay long enough to give God room to speak.

3. I Hold On to the One Thing That Finally Lands

At some point, usually quietly, something lands.

It might be a lyric. A verse. A line from a sermon. And when it does, I cling to it. I repeat it. I listen to it over and over again.

Just because something hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean God said no. Trying again and again doesn’t cancel the promise. Delay is not denial.

That’s often when peace begins to return.

Rest follows.

Perspective shifts.

4. I Immerse Myself Fully Until I’m Restored

When I feel strong enough, I go deeper. This is when I tune into Koinonia and  Upper room. I listen to full services from worship, testimonies, sermons, sometimes for hours. I let it fill my day. I let it reset my spirit.

That’s usually when I feel restored again. When I can see past the problem. When I remember that God is bigger than the season and that there was a lesson in it all.

And when I get there?

It’s relief.

Not because everything is fixed, but because I know God is faithful. I know He’s restoring me. I know the answer is on its way.

A Final Thought

Sometimes the journey back to God doesn’t look like prayer.

Sometimes it looks like staying.

Sometimes it looks like tears.

Sometimes it looks like listening when you have nothing to say.

But God finds us anyway.

If you’re struggling and you don’t know how to get back to that place where prayer flows easily again. start here. Stay. Listen. Be present.

And let God do the rest.

With Love, 

Ayo