Biblical Wisdom for Flourishing | Dr Victor Counted

Happy new month!

October is here, and with it comes a fresh reminder that life doesn’t always go the way we hope. Just when we think we’ve healed, something comes along to test that healing.

That is why our focus this month is….  

resilience.

Resilience is the psychological (and I’d add God-given) strength to keep standing when life pushes hard, to keep trusting when answers aren’t clear, and to keep moving forward knowing God is with us.

Healing is not the finish line. Life keeps coming at us, and sometimes it tests the very healing God has started in us. That is why resilience is an important topic both in the bible and psychology.

Psalm 46:1 puts it straight: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” God is not just comfort at a distance. He is right there in the thick of it all, present in the trouble itself.

Think about Joseph. His life was one setback after another, e.g., betrayal, slavery, prison. Yet he came to see God’s hand in all of it: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Or Esther — an orphan girl who found herself queen. She risked everything for her people, saying, “If I perish, I perish.” That’s resilience. Not escaping hardship, but walking into it with faith.

Psychologists define resilience as the capacity to adapt positively when adversity hits. And time and time again, research shows faith makes the difference (e.g., the Global Flourishing Study). Faith gives us meaning. It helps us anchor our hope when everything else feels chaotic. Without that anchor or secure base, adversity pulls us under. With it, we find strength to stand.

So let me make this practical. Take one area of struggle in your life right now. Hold it before God and pray Psalm 46:1 over it:

God, be my refuge: help me run to You first.

God, be my strength: carry me when I am weak.

God, be my ever-present help: remind me You are here now.

Resilience does not mean we don’t experience pain. It does not mean pretending the pain isn’t real either. Rather, it means trusting that God is greater than the pain. Joseph, Esther, and countless believers before us — the “crowd of witness” (Heb. 12:1) — show that faith doesn’t remove hardship. Our faith gives us the courage to endure adversity as a psycho-spiritual strength and protective refuge that we draw from to adapt to our current and future circumstances. And your story of resilience? It’s still being written.