Getting
Through Difficult Times
As I write this
article, many of my friends are
enduring painful circumstances.
Please take a moment and consider the
travail that each situation offers.
One friend lost her mother just a few
days ago. Another friend is
overwhelmed with sorrow, because he
lost his fiancé in September. A
relative lost his job and he has been
unable to find work for months.
Another relative is going through a
bitter divorce and his parents (who
have been intimately involved in the
children’s lives) are
distraught. Another friend has been
forced into bankruptcy. Another
friend is struggling with
complications from heart surgery.
Another friend is facing bankruptcy
because of medical bills. Another
friend is struggling with the side
effects of chemo treatments. Another
friend succumbed to drug addition.
One friend has undergone surgery for
stomach cancer and has been given
less than four week to live. Another
friend is recovering from a near
fatal stroke. Another friend is in
the hospital with a clot in her lung.
I could offer more situations, but
you get the picture. We live in a
world of hurt. Sooner of later on
this earth, everyone gets hurt.
Even thought difficult
situations can develop without
notice, they have one thing in
common. There is no escape.
Tribulation is like crawling into a
narrow tunnel – everything is
dark, disgusting, foreboding, and the
exit is unknown. Anxiety, depression,
and pain overwhelm you, and there is
no way out – but to crawl
forward. Because all people
themselves in a difficult situation
sooner or later, and since there is
no easy way to go through times like
these, I thought a few words about
getting through a difficult time
might be helpful.
Note: This short story
addresses some of the spiritual
issues that attend suffering. Because
each difficult situation has a unique
set of parameters, a single solution
to life’s problems is not
possible. In each situation, there
are practical steps that can and must
be done, but there are also elements
in some difficult situations, that we
can do nothing about. In this study,
I want to focus on the importance of
maintaining a healthy attitude,
especially during situations that we
are powerless to resolve. All
difficult situations become much
worse when we allow a negative
attitude to prevail. Therefore, I
hope this study will encourage anyone
stuck in a devastating situation that
seems to be unresolvable. The
statement, “there is a silver
lining in each cloud,” may seem
trite, but it is true. Even though we
may not be able to see through the
dark clouds of despair, we know the
sun always shines.” “….
Weeping may endure for a night, but
joy comes in the morning!” (Psalms
30:5. KJV)
Four
General Principles
When people are
trapped in difficult situations, how
do they overcome feelings of
helplessness, depression, and
despair? How do they focus on a
bright outcome when there is nothing
but heartache, darkness, and the
unknown? How do they keep from
getting frustrated with God when day
after day, their prayers seem to have
no effect? These are important
questions and although each
circumstance is unique, here are four
general principles that all people
should keep in mind when they find
themselves trapped in a difficult
situation:
Principle #1:
God is love (1 John 4:8), God
sees everything (2 Chronicles 16:9),
God hears everything (2 Samuel 22:7),
God understands everything (Matthew
10:26), but God, in His infinite
wisdom (Proverbs 8:12,22-28), does
not usually produce the outcome that
we want. (Daniel 3:17,18) It is our
privilege to ask God for anything
that we want as long as our request
is subject to His infinite wisdom.
Faith in God means believing and
trusting that (a) He has heard our
request, and (b) He will produce the
best possible outcome in due time.
This can be a hard pill to swallow,
but there is no way to have peace
when trapped in a difficult
situation. Even Jesus agonized with
the Father in the Garden of
Gethsemane, “… not my
will, but thine be done.” (Luke
22:42, KJV)
When desperate
circumstances force us into a tight
corner, many people are unprepared to
exercise the power of faith. The
concept of faith is often
misunderstood and to understand it,
you must realize that faith has two
sides. One side is accepting the
facts listed in Principle #1. The
second side of the coin is a total
surrender to God’s infinite
wisdom. Let me make a blunt
statement: We take the place of
God when we presume to tell God what
the outcome of our tribulation should
be.
The Bible says that
human beings are inherently
rebellious toward God’s
authority (Romans 8:7). Therefore, it
should not be surprising that we are
tempted to get angry with God when He
refuses to carry out our will!
However, as God’s children, we
should strive to overcome our inherit
rebellious nature. Born again people “…live
in accordance with the Holy Spirit
and they have their minds set on what
the Spirit desires.” (Romans
8:5) If we are unwilling to let God
use His divine wisdom, if we are
unwilling to accept God’s will
in all matters (big and small), then
we set ourselves up for a situation
where rebellion toward God can be
justified. This is exactly what
happened to Lucifer when he lived
in Heaven and rebellion led to
his fall. I assume you know the
dismal outcome of that story.
God does not ask us to
put our faith in Him without first
giving us sufficient evidence that
our faith in Him is not misplaced.
This is why we have the Bible.
Unfortunately, most people today know
nothing about the Bible! As the Bible
traces God’s actions over 4,000
years of human history, it proves the
evidence that intelligent faith
requires. The bible reveals that God
is love, and that God sees, hears and
understands. Even more, it assures us
that God will surely produce
the best possible outcome possible
for everyone who is willing to
surrender to His wisdom and to His
perfect timing. Consider these
examples: Look at Jesus. It was
God’s will that He die on the
cross. Then, God resurrected Him and
placed him on Heaven’s throne.
Look at Joseph. It was God’s
will that he go to prison. From
there, God put him on Pharaoh’s
throne. Look at Daniel. It was
God’s will that he go to the
lion’s den. From there, God
placed him in the courts of
Darius’ kingdom. Look at Ester.
It was God’s will that she risk
her life to save her people. She was
willing to perish if that was
God’s will, but instead, God
saved an entire nation as a result of
her faith. It is clear that
submission to God’s divine
wisdom always produces a glorious
outcome even though the current
situation may be imprisonment or even
death.
Principle #2: When
it comes to seeing God’s
handiwork, patient endurance and
faith-fullness are nonnegotiable. If
we have no patience, the incredible
experience of seeing God’s
direct involvement in our difficult
situation will be lost. (James 1:2-8)
The experience of receiving strength
from God on a day-to-day basis will
also be lost. Faith in God is not to
be confused with living in denial.
Many people believe that positive
thinking is the equivalent of faith
in God. While we should try to look
on the positive side of everything,
positive thinking is no substitute
for faith. Faith in God starts with
complete surrender to His divine
wisdom and waiting patiently upon the
Lord for His solution. That
means you trust God to give you
wisdom, courage, strength, and
whatever you need in order to deal
with your situation.
Be realistic. God
rarely suspends the laws of nature to
accommodate the needs of anyone. If
God suspended the laws of nature
every time someone asked for a
miracle, nothing on Earth would be
predictable! God put the laws of
sowing and reaping in place for a
reason. If we sow good seed, a good
harvest will follow. If we sow wild
oats, what should our harvest be? Of
course, God can suspend natural law
when divine wisdom and a higher
purpose dictates, but only then.
When God, in His infinite wisdom,
cannot suspend the laws of nature on
our behalf, He sends the Comforter.
The Holy Spirit imparts strength,
courage, and grace to deal with the
situation – one day at a time!
(Matthew 6:31-34; John 16:5-15) Some
people do not want the gift of the
Comforter, but instead, want God to
simply take their problem go away.
God does not work like this. Let us
keep in mind who God is and who we
are. He has omniscience. He knows
best and He is intimately acquainted
with our needs and it is through the
tough times that Jesus comes very
close to us if we are willing to
patiently wait For Him.
Principle #3:
God has two wills: Intended and
permissive. (I call them Plan A and
Plan B.) For example, when God let
Israel out of Egypt, He
“intended” to take Israel
into the Promised Land within two
years (Plan A). When the twelve spies
returned from the Promised Land and
gave a report that caused the people
to distrust God, He became angry with
that rebellious generation. He
confined them to the desert for
thirty-eight more years so that
specific generation could die off
(Plan B). Individuals can rebel
against God and ruin Plan A
(God’s intended will for our
lives). Unfortunately, this may mean
that they have to wander in the
wilderness and for what seems like
forty years (Plan B). Moses, after
killing the Egyptian, fled to the
wilderness and spent forty years
tending sheep before God called him
to lead His people out of Egypt. I am
reminding you of this story because
sometimes our pain and suffering are
self-inflicted. We reap what we sow.
Be of good courage. God will
implement Plan B if we are willing
and Plan B will have a glorious
result if we stay with it! So, repent
if necessary! Let go of your bad
attitude toward God and man. Turn
from your carnal thinking and evil
ways because God will lead His
children out of the wilderness if
they are willing to walk in His ways.
God is in the business of making
lemonade out of lemons for people who
love and obey Him. It may take a
while, but with God, the end is
always better than the beginning!
Principle #4:
Everyone born into this world is
a victim of sin’s power. It is
imperative that we understand this
curse because the curse of sin
explains a number of things that are
otherwise unexplainable. The
suffering of my friends is common to
all mankind. Death, sorrow, illness,
addition, bankruptcy, and broken
relationships never end. Millions of
people have asked, “Why does a
God of love permit all of this
suffering? How can Almighty God sit
on His throne and ignore our
problems?” These are reasonable
questions and the following response
to this question may surprise you.
But first, let me put a frame around
this topic. Please consider the
following: God has omniscience (all
knowing), God has omnipotence (all
power), God is love (all giving), God
is constant (never changes), God has
perfect wisdom (never makes a
mistake), and God is impartial
(reasonable and fair). These
attributes of God have been stated so
that the following three facts will
make sense.
Fact 1: In
the beginning, there was no sin (Plan
A). Then, sin began. First, with
Lucifer and his followers in Heaven,
then with Adam and Eve and their
offspring on Earth. God, His infinite
wisdom, decided that the curse of sin
should exist for a predetermined
period of time (Plan B). Get this: Before
sin began, God foreknew that sin
would occur and He predetermined the
duration of the curse of sin to exist
for the eternal benefit of the
universe. Read that previous
sentence again. When God brings the
curse of sin to an end, everyone
in the universe will have a clear
understanding of good and evil. This
knowledge, along with those who were
redeemed from sin’s curse, will
insure that sin will never
invade God’s universe again.
Fact 2: God,
in His infinite love, has given every
being the power of choice. We can
choose to submit to His wisdom and
authority or we can choose to rebel
against Him. The choice is ours and
so are the consequences. (We must
reap what we choose to sow.) Lucifer
and his followers choose to rebel. We
can see the consequences. Adam and
Eve choose to rebel. We see the
consequences. The amazing thing about
understanding the consequences of
sin’s power is that God’s
wisdom is fully exonerated. In other
words, once a person understands the
power of sin, he or she finds that
God’s laws are not arbitrary.
God’s love is not manipulative.
God has done everything possible to
protect free moral agents from
sin’s power. On the other hand,
if we rebel against God’s laws,
we simply reap the consequences.
(Galatians 6:7,8)
Fact 3: Now
we come to a fact that can be hard to
understand. Sin cause people to hurt
one another. Lucifer caused one third
of the holy angels to lose their
home. Cain killed his brother Abel.
King David killed one of his best
friends to have his wife. Wicked
parents ruin innocent children. Sin
is like radioactive material that
radiates and kills whomever happens
to be around it. When Adam choose to
rebel against God’s law, the
perfect world that God created
changed drastically. Prior to the
fall, Adam and Even had a
predisposition for living
righteously. They lived in perfect
harmony with the ways and will of
God. After Adam and Even sinned,
sin’s power changed them.
Suddenly, they had a propensity for
doing evil and this propensity was
passed to their offspring. Therefore,
death, sorrow, illness, and all kinds
of problems began to multiply
exponentially through out the Earth.
Remember, God has ordained that
sin’s curse should endure for a
predetermined amount of time. During
the last 6,000 years, the curse of
sin has radiated and harmed people
all over the world. This planet is
similar to an ant farm display with
clear panels. The universe watches us
and witnesses our evil deeds,
rebellion, murders, and sexual
immorality. They see endless cycles
of pain, sorrow death, and suffering.
They understand the power of sin
better than we do because they are
observing the effects, but not living
in it! Even more, they also
understand a number of things about
God and His ways that would not
otherwise be possible to know!
Do you remember the
story of the blind man in John 9? The
Jews believed the birth defects were
a curse from God. One day, “His
disciples asked him. ‘Rabbi
[Jesus], who sinned, this man or
his parents, that he was born
blind?’ ‘Neither this man
nor his parents sinned,’ said
Jesus, ‘but this happened so
that the work of God might be
displayed in his life.’” (John
9:2,3, insertion mine) The blind man
suffered from the curse of sin that
came into this world through Adam.
The blind man was a victim of
sin’s radiation. Jesus made it
clear that the blind man was not
suffering from a particular sin on
his part or that of his parents. We
live in a world cursed by sin and
every deformity and every crime
testifies to this curse. The good
news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is
that God can make lemonade out of
lemons! How many times have you seen
a disabled person do something
extraordinary? What you are actually
seeing is the gift of God displayed
in that person’s life.
The
Faith of Jesus
Perhaps the above
information will help us get through
difficult situations. If knowledge is
helpful, then yes, it helps to
understand what God is doing and why
God permits things to happen and why
it appears that God does not answer
our cry for help. It also helps to
know that God will work things out
according to His infinite wisdom.
This knowledge is the basis of
intelligent faith. To see God’s
purpose, we have to patiently endure.
“And we know that in all
things God works for the good of
those that love him, who have been
called according to his
purpose.” (Romans 8:28) On
the other hand, knowledge is not our
Savior. Information is not enough,
but God has more to give! Consider
this:
Jesus was deeply
troubled by His approaching death. He
said to His disciples, “Now
my heart is troubled, and what shall
I say! ‘Father, save me from
this hour?’ No, it was for this
very reason I came to this
hour.” (John 12:27) Later,
in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus
prayed, “…My
Father, if it is possible, may this
cup be taken from me, Yet not as I
will, but as you will.”
(Matthew 26:39) We see an interesting
contest in these two verses. When
facing death on the cross, the
humanity within Jesus did not want to
go there, but the divinity within
Jesus knew that He had come to Earth
“for this very reason.”
Jesus experienced a great struggle
because of these two compelling
interests and this is why I believe
He sweat great drops of blood. (Luke
22:44)
Jesus said to His
disciples, “… In this
world you will have trouble. But take
heart! I have overcome the
world.” (John 16:33)
Jesus’ victory helps us because
He has walked in our shoes. He has
suffered more than we can ever suffer
and He overcame sin’s power.
Therefore, Jesus knows how to coach
us through difficult times. He knows
when to send the Comforter (the Holy
Spirit), He knows when to give us
courage. He knows when to give us
strength, and He knows how to lead us
into the perfect will of God because
He has “been there, done
that.” Jesus is intimately
acquainted with our suffering. “During
the days of Jesus’ life on
earth, he offered up prayers and
petitions with loud cries and tears
to one who could save him from death,
and he was heard because of his
reverent submission. Although he was
a son, he learned obedience from what
he suffered and, once made perfect
[mature through suffering], he
became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey
him…” (Hebrews 5:7-9,
insertion mine)
What an exciting
thought to realize that when we
suffer, God sees, He hears, He knows,
He understands, and He will do
everything possible (while sin’s
curse is active) to see us through.
Paul wrote, “No temptation
has seized you except what is common
to man. And God is faithful; he will
not let you be tempted beyond what
you can bear. But when you are
tempted, he will also provide a way
so that you can stand up under
it.”
(1 Corinthians 10:13)
So, the bottom line is this: In this
world, we will have trouble, but we
have some facts to hag on to and we
have a Savior who overcame the world.
He knows all about our troubles.
Trust in Him, surrender to His will
– and a peace that passes all
understanding will flood your soul
– the Comforter will see to it!
(Isaiah 26:3) Here is a perfect
example of perfect peace that the
Apostle Paul wrote (Paul was a
man often persecuted for his faith): “…
I have learned to be content whatever
the circumstances. I know what it is
to be in need, and I know what it is
to have plenty. I have learned the
secret of being content in any and
every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or
in want. I can do everything through
him who gives me strength.” (Philippians
4:11-13)
Larry Wilson
