Trusting God Through Wilderness Seasons – Guest Post by Cassandra Armstrong

by Jennifer Slattery on March 19, 2026March 19, 2026

When you feel like someone dropped you in the middle of an endless desert and you’re not sure which direction to go or if you’ll ever reach a water source, look up, maintain hope, and keep stepping because God won’t abandon you now, or ever.

Thanks to my guest today for this powerful reminder.

Trusting God Through the Wilderness Seasons

A Guest Post by Cassandra Armstrong

In many seasons, my faith has felt less like a refuge and more like a path I was lost on.

I loved God and grew up with faith in Christ. I prayed, read Scripture, and went to church. From the outside, my life looked steady. But underneath that fragile faith, quiet anxiety lingered. Fears of the unknown and my lack of control whispered that grief and stress might never improve. Sometimes I wondered if God was silent because I had missed something, or if the heaviness I felt was simply the world revealing itself as it truly was.

Doubt rarely arrives loudly. It settles in quietly, disguising itself as exhaustion while prayers feel unanswered. Seasons like that feel like a wilderness—places where it becomes difficult to see where God is leading and every step forward requires trust.

Recently, my family and I stepped into one of those wilderness seasons.

During the winter storms sweeping across much of the United States, we felt a little overconfident in the snowy mountains of Maine. My husband, children, and I spent the weekend traveling between Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine for a hockey tournament, a gymnastics meet, and the long drive home. The roads were treacherous, a reminder of how little control we truly have.

When we finally arrived home, we stepped into a freezing house.

We had run out of oil. Pipes had frozen, and one had burst in the laundry room. The washer was damaged from frozen hoses. The bathroom pipes were frozen, and a switch in the dining room had stopped working.

As Mainers, we usually prepare for these kinds of problems. But facing them all at once felt overwhelming.

My husband worked through the list while the oil was delivered, but the boiler refused to start. The filter needed replacing. In the process, oil spilled across the cellar floor. The next day our son told us the toilet had overflowed, and water backed up through the shower and sink drains.

Financially, we were already stretched thin between travel, winter heating costs, and a slow season for contracts in our business.

That night my husband and I lay awake until nearly five in the morning, staring at the ceiling and wondering how we were going to manage it all.

Eventually he reached for my hand and began to pray.

He thanked the Lord for our blessings and asked for guidance through this season of strain and uncertainty.

As we prayed, I was reminded that we’ve walked through wilderness seasons before. Together we’ve lost a child. We lost my mother. We’ve been fired from jobs. We watched our daughter battle leukemia and helped our son through difficult seasons of his own.

Those experiences taught us something important: God doesn’t promise that we’ll avoid the wilderness. But He does promise to meet us there.

In Exodus 16, the Israelites found themselves in a wilderness with no clear way forward. After their rescue from slavery, fear took hold when food ran out and the future felt uncertain. Yet God met them there with manna—daily bread that taught them to trust Him one day at a time.

Our wilderness seasons may look different. They may come through grief, financial strain, uncertainty, or the accumulation of everyday hardships. But the lesson remains the same.

God often meets us in the wilderness by teaching us to trust Him for today.

The morning after we prayed together, we woke with a little more clarity. Instead of trying to solve everything at once, we began addressing each problem one step at a time.

The toilet still isn’t fixed. But we have heat and hot water.

For now, that’s enough.

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:34:

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (NLT).

When we trust God with today, we discover that His presence and provision are enough to carry us through any wilderness season.

If this resonated with you, you might also enjoy this podcast episode titled, “How God Brings Good Through Wilderness Seasons.”

Get to Know Cassandra Armstrong:

Cassandra is the author of Growth in the Grief and The Grit and Grace Column. She is also published in Arise Daily, Snark and Sensibility, and Heart of Hospitality Magazine. She is a wife, mother, writer, U.S. Navy veteran, cybersecurity business-owner, podcaster, and doctoral student with degrees in English and business, and majors in strategic leadership and technology management. Her current research focuses on servant leadership and leader-member exchange within strategic leadership. She is the mother of four children and lives on her homestead in the mountains of Maine with her family, dogs, highland cow, pigs, and chickens.

Check Out Her Book, Growth in the Grief:

“Whether it is grief from guilt, grief from the finality of a relationship, or finality of life, the physical impacts and untamed thoughts are not without excruciating wisdom and need for God’s arms around us to guide each of us through the human condition of inevitable loss and guilt from sin.”

– Growth in the Grief

In this powerful memoir and devotional, Cassandra Armstrong details her voyage through some of life’s most painful battles. With raw honesty, she recounts unforgettable pain amidst death, illness, sexual assault, loss, regret, and self-blame. Through overstimulated anxiety and depression, she juggles life as a parent, spouse, daughter, sailor, student, caretaker, co-worker, and business owner-all while facing grief and tragedy. Readers are invited to journal through her personal life lessons, revealing the glory of God highlighted via navigation through spiritual gifts, grace, and the unveiling of His plan through spiritual maturity, wisdom, and unwavering faith amid suffering.

Buy it HERE.

Healthy Boundaries for Compassionate People – Faith Over Fear

Some relationships leave us feeling anxious, emotionally drained and unsure how to move forward. We want to love well, extend grace and remain faithful to God's call, yet we often find ourselves carrying burdens that were never ours to bear. In this episode, Jennifer Slattery sits down with pastor, author and biblical counselor Brad Hambrick to discuss what healthy boundaries are, what they aren't and why establishing them can feel so difficult—especially for compassionate people. Together, they explore the difference between sacrificial love and self-neglect, how to recognize unhealthy relational patterns, why boundaries are ultimately an issue of stewardship and what Scripture teaches about navigating difficult relationships with wisdom and grace. If you've ever struggled with guilt, fear of disappointing others or uncertainty about when to step back, this conversation will provide practical guidance and biblical encouragement. Scripture referenced or discussed: Matthew 7:3–5; John 2:24-25; Romans 13:1–4; Philippians 2:5–8; Philippians 1:6 Connect with Pastor Brad Hambrick: On his website On Instagram On Facebook Find Jennifer Slattery: On her website Instagram Facebook Amazon Subscribe to her free newsletter Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

When it Feels Like God Let You Down

by Jennifer Slattery on March 12, 2026March 11, 2026

Have you ever felt convinced God was leading you in a certain direction—one you spent years, maybe decades, pursuing—only to find yourself on a long, winding road heading the wrong way?

If you’ve ever chased a dream, launched a small business, or spent years building a ministry, you know how long, exhausting, and painful that journey can feel.

So much emotion and so many doubts can grow in the space between the moment you told God yes and the moment you reach your hoped-for destination.

Obstacles appear. Questions multiply. And before long, it can feel like you’re stuck on an endlessly looping road with no finish line in sight.

Perhaps that’s where you are now. Perhaps you’ve begun to wonder if you heard God correctly when you first took those timid steps—or if He spoke at all.

I’ve been there.

I understand the pain and confusion. I know the pull toward disillusionment that hits during those wilderness seasons.

But I also know the joy that comes when you wrestle through the questions and doubts and—holding tight to your floundering faith—keep walking until, eventually, God’s blessing unfolds.

In 2013, after pounding away on my keyboard hour after hour, day after day, and year after year, I finally received “the call.”

That’s publishing speak for the conversation with a publisher that ultimately leads to a contract.

I can’t tell you how many words I’d typed, conferences I’d attended, articles and blog posts I’d written, or pieces of feedback I’d received along the way. Many more than I ever anticipated when my husband bought me my first laptop and encouraged me to pursue the passion God placed in my heart.

Along the way, I started, quit, cried, and gave in to frustration more times than I can count.

I fought with God, yielded to Him, doubted Him, trusted Him—and then doubted Him yet again.

Eventually, I reached a peaceful contentment where I could honestly say that following God’s will and experiencing the peace of His presence was enough.

Ironically, everything became muddy once I received my first contract.

Then the next. And the next.

By the time book five released, I began trading my ultimate purpose—living for Christ—for an emerging desire to live for myself. That slowly morphed into people-pleasing driven by a growing fear of failure.

Then came 2016.

The year I felt like I was hiking a steep, rocky incline without making progress. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t gain traction.

Eventually things became so insurmountable that I came to a painful realization.

God wasn’t blessing the work of my hands.

He wasn’t opening doors that I could see.

In fact, it seemed as if He were slamming them shut.

I thought my career was over.

Over a decade of my life—wasted.

For a time, I lost my sense of self. My confidence in God’s goodness grew shaky.

But that was also when my faith took a major turn.

Even now, that day remains vivid in my mind.

I was in our basement, riding the exercise bike with a stack of handwritten Scripture cards propped on the dash in front of me. I recited them out of simple obedience, though none of them seemed to land.

But the Lord met me there—in my pain and discouragement—through the words of one handwritten verse I didn’t remember writing.

It was Psalm 147:5:

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.

I sensed God asking me,

“Do you believe this about Me? Do you believe I’m all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful, and good?”

That moment forced me to confront something deeper than my circumstances: what I truly believed about God.

That question invited me to examine the root of my fears and frustrations—and the statements the statements they made about God.

My soul answered with a confident yes.

Yes, my Lord is all those things—and more.

My circumstances didn’t change His character or His heart.

And that truth—not my disappointment—became the foundation on which I anchored my faith.

The foundation that sustained me when He revealed His next assignment.
And the one after that.
And the one after that.

That was sixteen books, hundreds of keynotes, and countless articles ago.

Now, sitting at my desk and looking back over the disappointments and celebrations since, I can boldly proclaim:

Great is my God and mighty in power. His understanding is limitless.

So if you find yourself in that difficult space between your obedient yes and the moment your faith becomes sight, hold tight to this truth:

God has good planned for you.

He will not leave you wandering aimlessly through the wilderness forever.

He will not waste a single tear or frustrating moment.

Instead, He will use it all to fulfill the beautiful plans He crafted for you before you took your first breath—or your first timid step.

Because when the road feels long,
Great is our Lord and mighty in power.

When the path feels confusing,
His understanding has no limit.

When your faith feels fragile,
Great is our Lord and mighty in power.

And when you cannot yet see where the road leads,

His understanding has no limit.

If this resonated with you, make sure to listen to the Faith Over Fear episode titled “When Life Feels Unfair: How to Trust God When Hardship Hits”

Healthy Boundaries for Compassionate People – Faith Over Fear

When Faith Feels Fragile: Holding On Anyway – Guest post by Zeeva Usman

by Jennifer Slattery on May 8, 2025May 7, 2025

There are days when faith feels unshakable—when the worship is sweet, the Scriptures speak directly to your heart, and the path ahead looks clear. But then there are days … when faith feels like it’s barely hanging on. Fragile. Thin. Quiet. And maybe today is one of those days.

I remember a time when I wrestled with doubt. I had been praying and seeking God’s guidance, but everything felt still and silent. I wondered if my prayers were even heard, and I began to question my faith. During that time, I realized that it’s okay to wrestle with doubt—it doesn’t mean we’ve lost our faith, but rather, we’re being honest with God and ourselves about our struggles. That moment taught me that faith isn’t about never feeling weak; it’s about choosing to trust, even when we’re unsure.

If so, you’re not alone.

Even the strongest believers face seasons when doubt whispers louder than truth and prayers feel like they bounce off the ceiling. But Scripture doesn’t shame us for fragile faith. In fact, it gives us permission to be honest—about our fears, our questions, and our weariness.

Even Heroes of Faith Had Weak Moments

Abraham doubted. Elijah hid in a cave. John the Baptist—who once pointed boldly to Jesus—sent messengers to ask, “Are You the one, or should we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3)

If they struggled, why do we think we shouldn’t?

Faith isn’t about never wavering. It’s about choosing to trust—even when we’re trembling. It’s about leaning in when everything in us wants to run. It’s about holding on to Jesus, not because we’re strong, but because He is.

When All You Can Do Is Stay Close

Sometimes faith is loud and confident. Other times, it’s quiet and persistent. It shows up in whispered prayers. In opening the Bible, even when it feels dry. In wearing faith-based apparel as a simple reminder of who you belong to. In choosing worship when you feel numb. In staying in community, when isolation seems easier.

And sometimes, it simply looks like saying, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

That prayer counts. That is faith.

God Doesn’t Despise Fragile Faith

The beautiful thing about our God is that He doesn’t require perfect faith—He just invites us to come. He meets us in the valley, in the questions, and even in the silence. Jesus never turned away the weak-hearted. He drew near. He lifted heads. He offered peace.

He still does.

You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to be willing to reach for Him, even with trembling hands.

Faith That Grows in the Cracks

The very places where your faith feels fragile might be where God is doing His deepest work. Growth doesn’t always happen in the mountaintop moments—it often happens in the in-between, the unseen, the waiting.

So if your faith feels fragile today, let this be your reminder: Fragile faith is still faith. And the One you’re holding on to will never let go of you.

Get to Know Zeeva Usman

Zeeva Usman is an experienced content manager at Christian Marketing Experts and a content specialist at Salt of Heaven, where she uses her expertise to create impactful, faith-centered content. When she’s not crafting words, Zeeva finds joy in worshiping and singing for the Lord Jesus, drawing inspiration from her faith to encourage others.

Healthy Boundaries for Compassionate People – Faith Over Fear

Holy, Intimate Wrestling with God

by Jennifer Slattery on July 4, 2024July 3, 2024

(Copy edited by Aneah Epshteyn.)

Graphic with quote on wrestling with God and how He uses our wrestling to transform us.

(Image first used on March 31, 2022 in THIS post.)

Do we proclaim, “God’s ways are higher than mine” (Is. 55:8-9) too soon? While true, God never intended us to use this statement to silence our questions and numb our discomfort in painful situations. Not only does our faith grow exponentially during wrestling seasons, but our very willingness to engage reveals a depth of trust I’m certain touches our Father’s heart.

Only one secure in their mom or dad’s unconditional love can express their most anguished emotions, especially when they blame that parent for their pain. Those conversations, as excruciating as they might feel, can lead to deeper relationships. In pushing past surface niceties to the most hidden places in the soul, they forge a connection not experienced otherwise.

Parenting an adult child profoundly elevated my appreciation for this holiest of struggles. When my daughter left for college, her physical distance and maturity widened her view of me, my parenting, and how both had affected her. She came to realize that I possessed flaws and that they’d caused her pain. In the years following, she shared some of these wounds with me in conversations we both found excruciating.

I imagine there were many times she debated keeping silent. There were certainly numerous occasions in which I wished she had! At least, in the moment. Standing on the other side of that uncomfortable and healing season, I’m grateful for her courage because I’ve witnessed the converse. I’ve watched other young adults and their parents grow increasingly distant due to unresolved hurts that remained undisclosed, out of fear.

While I can’t speak to other people’s motivation, I can share what my daughter told me one afternoon not long ago. “You were always a safe person for me to come to,” she said.

I take this to mean that she knew, even when I didn’t always react well in the moment, that I would always reach for her. Just as, through those raw and frightening conversations, she was reaching for me.

These were my thoughts as I contemplated the words of Habakuk, the Old Testament prophet living during a dark period of ancient Israel’s history. Granted, unlike me, our Heavenly Father is always the perfect parent. But that doesn’t mean His kids won’t respond to His actions with intense emotion. In Habakuk’s dialogue with God, we see a courage and trust that drove him straight to his Father, and the unconditional, healing love that met him there.

The prophet launched this lyrical discussion asking God how long He’d remain silent to his cries for help and tolerant to violence and injustice. The Lord responded by the foretelling of Babylon’s invasion. Increasingly distraught, Habakuk said, in essence, “How could You, the Holy One, do such a thing?”, adding in chapter two: “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (v. 1, NIV).

I envision him with feet planted and arms crossed, determined not to drop the matter until the Lord responds. Does that seem brazen? Were we to encounter similar behavior from a brother or sister in Christ, would we view their words as rebellion? Or the raw expression of an anguished child to the one Person whose comfort they most crave?

Graphic with quote from post. Christ is always our safe place.

The book of Habakuk assures us that Christ is and always will be our safe place. When we live in that reality, as the prophet did, we reach a firmer understanding that, indeed, God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. We reach a place of greater trust where we also can say, no matter what happens, “I will rejoice in the Lord … The sovereign Lord is my strength” (Hab. 3:17-19, NIV).

Let’s talk about this! When you think of wrestling with God, what feelings arise? What are your thoughts regarding Habakkuk’s interactions with the Lord? How can allowing ourselves to wrestle with God lead to deeper faith and relational intimacy with the Lord?

Before you go, did you know Faith Over Fear now has a GodTube channel? You can find it HERE!

Healthy Boundaries for Compassionate People – Faith Over Fear

How Jesus Responds to Our Doubts

by Jennifer Slattery on February 7, 2019November 1, 2021

woman standing at dusk watching the sun set — Image by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

What happens when God doesn’t intervene? When circumstances grow worse, doors close, and illness lingers?

Is He still good?

Does He still love us?

Intellectually, we know sometimes bad things happen to good people, but sitting in the middle of chaos and catastrophe, doubts take hold.

A couple years ago, while on her first college coop, our daughter’s depression spiked. She did all the appropriate Christiany things. She went to church, read her Bible, meditated on Scripture, and prayed.

She prayed and prayed and prayed. And yet, her depression remained. And though she knew they were lies, comments she’d heard previously tore at her hope.

Just have faith, then your depression will go away.

Mental illness is a spiritual issue. If you’re close to Jesus, you’ll be happy.

Have Jesus, have joy.

It got to where going to church, the one place she was supposed to feel safe and find healing, increased her pain.

Made her feel less than. Insufficient. Unseen and unloved by her Creator.

But still she went, and one lonely Sunday morning, God met her there and gave her hope. Not that she’d get better, although with self-care she has. In fact, the sermon talked about times when God, for whatever reason, doesn’t intervene or heal. But whether we see His hand or not, He remains.

His love is unshakable.

That Sunday morning, in the middle of her depression, God let her know that she was okay. That their relationship was okay.

That He held her and wouldn’t let go.

We all need to know that, especially when life feels hard. We need to know that the One who formed galaxies by a mere command sees us and is alert to our suffering.

God doesn’t always act as we expect or even desire.

Imagine having given your entire life to serve Him, only to find yourself imprisoned and awaiting execution. Imagine the questions, the doubt, the intense inner wrestling.

The bursts of hope followed by crushing defeat and despair.

Just over two thousand years ago, a faithful prophet sat in a dark, dank dungeon. The stench of decomposing bodies, the cold that ate at his bones, wore down his courage and faith.

The man who first encountered Jesus from within his mother’s womb, who wept at the presence of the incarnate God, then a fetus. Who decades later proclaimed, with certainty, that He was “the lamb of God who took away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), the man who’d witnessed the Spirit landing upon Him like a dove and had heard the Father call Him His Son (Luke 3:22), feared, perhaps he’d been wrong.

Could it be Jesus wasn’t the long-promised Savior?

For surely, after all John had done, all he’d given up for the sake of Christ, God wouldn’t leave him in an ancient dungeon to die.

But as each day dragged into the next, without so much as a glimmer of light to distinguish them, John the Baptist’s certainty turned to doubt. In the confusion that can only come from deep pain, he sent one of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else” (Matthew 11:3)

John knew about all Christ had been doing. Even more, he knew what He hadn’t done, and in that moment, the one unanswered prayer drowned out every miracle proclaimed.

But Jesus reassured him, not by promising his rescue but instead, by reminding him of who He was.

“Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen,” Jesus told John’s disciples. “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:4).

In other words, “I’m still good, powerful, present, and in control.”

Then, immediately, Jesus spoke to the crowds, “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).

This was how Jesus addressed John’s doubt. Not with anger or disgust or rebuke. But with reminders of His power and affirmation of His love.

He responds to our doubt in the same way. God may not answer our prayers as we’d like. He may not rescue us from that difficult situation or bring long-desired healing. But when we come to Him honestly with our doubt and despair, He’ll center us in who He is and His love for us.

How might remembering those truths strengthen you for difficult situations? How can focusing on who God is and His heart for you bring hope in the middle of despair?

This week, at Wildewood Christian, we’ve been talking about remaining faithful through disillusionment. Whenever life doesn’t play out as we’d hoped or expected, we can feel discouraged, defeated, and disillusioned. How might reminding ourselves of God’s love, often, help us during those times? If you’d like to watch the full session, filled with tips for weathering disillusionment periods with hope and grace, you can watch it on Wholly Loved’s YouTube channel HERE. If you don’t have the study but would like to grab a copy, you can do so for free HERE. You can pick up a print copy HERE.