Wednesday, August 12, 2015

What To Do When The Bottom Falls Out




Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? —Matthew 8:26

“When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.[…] .. it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.[…] peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him.” CHAMBERS

There is nothing more painful than to watch other Christians go through difficult times, unprepared. By unprepared, I mean that they have been living their lives trusting themselves . .scraping by … or maybe flourishing and then the bottom drops out.  They have been trusting in themselves but they have failed themselves .. Since they have not learned to trust God, they have nowhere to turn.  They have made life choices that are contrary to the Word.  Stacked the deck against themselves.  Believed that there was nothing that they could not manipulate to their advantage .. and then “BOOM”, everything collapses.  They begin to ask where God is.  Why He hasn’t come to their aide.  The reason is that their hearts are far from Him.  What they need to do is repent.  Does that sound insensitive to you?  Someone who has a broken heart and you say repent?!?  Someone who is facing financial collapse and you say repent ?!?

They must set their heart right as the first step in recovering from misfortune.  Everything begins and ends with a right relationship with God.  Being sorry that something has happened is not enough.  Confessing their sin is not enough.  Repenting is what they need to do.  Turning away from self-righteousness and self-dependence .. and turning toward God.  Does that mean the financial collapse will be avoided?  Probably not.  Does that mean that relationships will be restored? Maybe not. Well, except for one.  Their relationship with their Father in heaven.  There needs to be spiritual restoration, first. ELGIN

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face.  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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