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 We are rarely ready for life’s hardness. A spouse is unfaithful. A child dies. A job gets outsourced. A cancer is detected. A sin or an addiction takes control. And all along, we feel overwhelmed and underprepared.

But what if our feelings mislead? What if, as Christ-followers, we are ready but don’t know it or have forgotten it? Then we need the crash course in God-centered self-talk Paul provides in 1 Corinthians 1:7-9:

Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

In these verses, which conclude Paul’s statement of thanksgiving for the Corinthians (1:4-9), Paul makes five statements that will revolutionize the way we feel about ourselves.

First, I am gifted. We live in the hiatus between Christ’s first and second comings. When Christ returns, the hard times will end, and we will begin to live and thrive in God’s presence, as we were meant to do from the beginning. Until then, God has given us all we need. Through the cross of Christ, we are forgiven. Through his resurrection, we are granted eternal life. And through his Spirit, we are fully resourced for living. We are not underprepared. We are gifted.

Second, I am strong. Church tradition tells us that Paul was a little man. His Roman name, Paulus, in fact, means “little.” Paul discloses the hardness of his life in 2 Corinthians 11:21-28. He faced down dangers we can hardly imagine: riots, beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, poverty, hunger, and nakedness, to name just a few. What kept him going?  The strength God gave him—and us—in Christ. We are not overwhelmed. We are strong.

Third, I am blameless. If there’s anything I know about myself, it is this: I am a sinner. I do what I shouldn’t and don’t do what I should. You’re a sinner too. It’s hard to think of ourselves as blameless. Our sinfulness is overwhelming and leaves us unprepared. But God doesn’t see us as we are. He see us as we are “in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:2, 4). In Christ, we are holy and blameless.

Fourth, I am not alone. One of the hardest of life’s many hardnesses is loneliness. We can deal with infidelity, death, unemployment, sickness, and sin as long as we are loved. And we are loved. God calls us into “fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Friends are good, but there is a Friend who is closer than a brother. Or a sister.

Finally, God is faithful. Self-talk that is not centered on God is a delusion. We are not gifted, strong, or blameless. We are alone. We are unprepared and overwhelmed by life’s hardness. Unless God is faithful. And he is. So we can be.