Words of Encouragement for any Adversity
Bad things that are out of our control can happen at any time. Most trouble, problems, adversity, and suffering, hit us at the worst of times when we least expect it. We are surprised! We are shocked! They catch us totally off-guard. It is easy to for us to hit the panic button. We become discouraged especially if we see no way out. But none of those reactions reflect God’s plan for us.
When anyone makes a decision to believe in Jesus Christ, that He was the Son of God and came to this earth to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross, that person is born again into the family of God. John 1:12. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” That is you!
You are in God’s family. You have an eternal relationship with Him. In Hebrews 13:5(b), God promises the believer, “I will never leave you nor will I ever forsake you.” In eternity past, God the Father thought, concentrated, and deliberated on you personally, and He put together a perfect plan, that includes a purpose, mission, a destiny just for you. Because God is omniscient and knows all the knowable, He tailor-made and customized this plan so that it fits your talents, abilities, mental capabilities, personality, strengths, weaknesses, etc. And because God is perfect, His plan for you is perfect.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” So what seems like calamity to us is actually for our benefit. The sovereignty of God combined with the love of God can only make decisions for our benefit. Just as you as an earthly father want only the very best for your sons, so our Heavenly Father even more so for us as His children.
Omniscient God was not surprised by the loss of your largest customer; you, on the other hand, were very surprised by it. You did not see it coming. But God knew all about it in eternity past when He put together the perfect plan for you. If God loves you, and He does, and if His sovereignty can only make decisions for your benefit, and that is true, and if His omniscience knew all about it, and He did, then it follows that our loving, gracious God must also provide a solution, a perfect solution, and He has. God knows exactly how it is all going to turn out. You don’t yet, but He does. You can take great comfort in knowing that you are in His perfect care. Deuteronomy 33:7(a). “The eternal God is a refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
I mentioned earlier that adversity is for our benefit, but there is a catch and the catch is our own volition. When faced with a problem, trouble, suffering, or any difficult circumstance, we have the choice of turning that adversity into stress in our souls or relaxing in the Lord knowing it all is in His hands. Adversity is inevitable in life; stress is optional. Adversity is what circumstances do to us; stress is what we do to ourselves. We always have the option to trust the Lord in the adversity. That is why God has allowed it into our lives. Isaiah 41:10. “Do not fear for I am with you, do not anxiously look about for I am your God; surely I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
When we trust the Lord with circumstances that pop up out of nowhere, we relax, and in that sense, we are doing exactly what Moses did at the Red Sea. We are standing fast and waiting for the deliverance of the Lord. Exodus 14:13. That trust entails grabbing a hold in our thinking of one of the many promises in the Bible. Each of those promises are statements from sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable God to you personally. When you claim a promise and think about our God who made the promise, it becomes a very powerful way to solve any problem and to prevent it from becoming stress in our souls. As you get better and better at doing that, you reach a point where the circumstances of life don’t matter.
1 Peter 5:7. “Cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you.” Philippians 4:19. “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.”
When we trust the Lord and begin to see His deliverance, it increases our trust even more, it builds our confidence in the Lord, and that accelerates our spiritual growth. That is the benefit. Of course, if we do not have faith in Him and His deliverance, then we will inflict stress upon ourselves and go through the adverse circumstance for nothing. It will be of no benefit. The benefit that God intended is never realized.
I can tell you from personal experience that is all easier said than done. For any of us to be able to trust the Lord with all the variations of problems and troubles that come into our lives, we must grow up spiritually. 2 Peter 3:18(a) says, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 2:5 says, “Keep on having this thinking in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 12:2(a) says, “Be concentrating on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Romans 12:2(a) says, “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing (or renovation) of your thinking.” When we were unbelievers, we thought a certain way. We looked to ourselves or others to solve problems. As believers, God is going to give us problems we can’t solve, so that we will turn to Him for a solution. Divine solutions are the only solution. Human solutions are no solution.
None of this works unless we are learning God’s Word daily. It has to be embedded in our soul. It has to be internalized. It has to become spiritual muscle memory so that when adversity rears its ugly head, we are ready in our thinking with the promises of God, with thoughts of who our God is, and how He loves us and wants the very best for us.
In your current predicament with your business, make the best decisions you can, do what you can, but ultimately realize it is in the Lord’s hands and trust Him for deliverance. Sometimes He delivers from the adversity, sometimes through the adversity, and sometimes in the adversity e.g. a terminal illness that lasts a long time. BUT He always delivers. Always. We just have to trust that, have confidence in that, and that only comes through the daily intake of God’s Word into our souls.
So when adversity strikes, remember we have a choice: Fall apart, become overwhelmed, and create stress for ourselves. Or, believe God’s promises. Trust Him. Have confidence that although we do not know how the Lord will deliver or when that deliverance might come, but we have absolute confidence that He will provide in His perfect timing.