Habit #2: Kiss the Wave (Learning to Grow Through Hard Things)
Most of us spend a lot of energy trying to avoid difficulty.
We pray for relief. We look for exits. We quietly assume that if life gets hard, something must have gone wrong. But Scripture tells a different story—one where hardship is not an interruption to spiritual growth, but often the pathway into it.
That’s why Habit #2 in
Win the Day is called Kiss the Wave.
The phrase comes from an old Spurgeon line about learning to “kiss the wave that throws us against the Rock of Ages.” It’s a startling image. Not loving pain. Not calling evil good. But recognizing that God often uses resistance to drive us closer to Himself.
This study doesn’t romanticize suffering. It simply tells the truth:
Growth costs something.
James says perseverance is forged
through trials.
Paul says suffering produces character.
Jesus says the cross comes before resurrection.
Kiss the Wave invites groups to rethink how they interpret difficulty—not as evidence of God’s absence, but often as evidence of His shaping work.
This habit is part of Win the Day, a Bible study built around seven biblical habits that shape ordinary days and, over time, entire lives:
Habit #1: Flip the
Script
Change the way you think. Transformation often begins with renewed minds.
Habit #2: Kiss the Wave
Learn how God uses hardship to deepen faith and build perseverance.
Habit #3: Eat the Frog
Face hard obedience first instead of putting it off.
Habit #4: Fly the Kite
Be faithful in small, often unseen moments.
Habit #5: Cut the Rope
Move from half-hearted faith to wholehearted
surrender.
Habit #6: Wind the Clock
Redeem the time and see each day as a gift from God.
Habit #7: Seed the Clouds
Act in faith before results are visible.
In this second habit, groups often discover something freeing:
They don’t have to waste their hard seasons.
The questions open space for honest conversation—about disappointment, endurance, unanswered prayer, and the slow work of God in the middle of real life. People begin to
see that difficulty doesn’t disqualify them from God’s purposes; it often prepares them for it.
Faith isn’t proven by the absence of waves.
It’s revealed by what we cling to when the waves come.
📘 Win the Day is available:
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As part of the subscription library at www.MyBibleStudyLessons.com
Some days are joyful.
Some days are heavy.
Both kinds of days can shape us—if we learn to trust God in the middle of them.
