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Trusting God in Tough Times: When Bad Things Happen

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It’s inevitable. Tough times will come along during our lives. A pastor friend once told me something along these lines: “You’re either coming out of a time of struggle, in the midst of a difficult time, or heading toward a challenging time.” The Christian life (or any life) is not always a bed of roses—and the Bible doesn’t promise us a life free from trouble. This week, let’s take a Scriptural look at trusting God through difficult circumstances.

 

When Bad Things Happen

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:-8-9, NLT

Ship_Wreck_TUESDAYIt’s difficult for me to watch the nightly news. So many bad things happen in our world, and it’s overwhelming! I find it especially hard when I hear of a child who is ill or a tragedy that affects an entire family. As I write this, the news is reporting the murder of nine people in a Charleston church.

How do we deal with heartbreaking events such as these? Where is God in the midst of tragedy?

These are really difficult questions, and I’m not prepared or qualified to provide all the answers in this daily devotional piece. However, I think it’s important to know what the Bible tells us about God’s sovereignty. It also helps us know how to respond when our unbelieving friends ask these same questions.

It helps me when I realize that God is not surprised by anything that occurs. He’s not sitting on His throne frustrated because things aren’t working out. In fact, nothing in the universe happens without His oversight and purpose.

Consider these verses that demonstrate God’s complete control at all times:

His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal. All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, “What do you mean by doing these things?” Daniel 4:34-35, NLT

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. Psalm 115:3, NIV

We live in a fallen world affected by sin. It’s far less than ideal, but God has a plan. Bad things will happen, and we won’t be able to understand. Today’s verse in Isaiah 55 explains how God’s ways are far beyond our imagination or understanding.

Trusting God means believing that He has everything under His absolute control, even when it seems like the opposite and even when it’s beyond our own understanding. His hands are capable. He is good and loving and worthy of our trust, even when bad things happen.

Learning to trust more fully,

Allison

Trusting God in Tough Times: Expect Difficult Times

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It’s inevitable. Tough times will come along during our lives. A pastor friend once told me something along these lines: “You’re either coming out of a time of struggle, in the midst of a difficult time, or heading toward a challenging time.” The Christian life (or any life) is not always a bed of roses—and the Bible doesn’t promise us a life free from trouble. This week, let’s take a Scriptural look at trusting God through difficult circumstances.

 

Expect Difficult Times

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 John 16:33, NIV

Expect_Trouble_MONDAYIn this world, we can expect trouble. John 16:33 spells out this statement for us in black and white. Jesus was speaking directly to His disciples, and He didn’t say you may have trouble. He said, “you will have trouble.” That sounds a little depressing, right? Thankfully in the same verse, Jesus also told us to take heart because He has overcome the world.

It’s important to set realistic expectations. Following Christ doesn’t exempt us from struggles or difficult circumstances. If our expectation is a life with no hard times, we will be disappointed and possibly even angry at God when the wheels fall off. Sometimes, the struggles we face can build our faith and character, creating a deeper relationship with our heavenly Father.

How do we maintain our trust in God when our lives are seemingly falling apart?

I’m reading a book right now entitled Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges. Bridges paints a beautiful picture of God’s providence over all His creation. In the book, he teaches that God only brings or allows things to happen in our lives that are for His glory and our good.

It’s a tough statement because sometimes we can’t see any good in a particular circumstance from our perspective. That’s when it becomes important to remember that only God sees the entire picture. Can we learn to trust God even when we don’t understand what He is doing?

God gives us some encouragement in His Word as we learn to trust in difficult times. We learn that He will keep us safe in days of trouble:

“For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.” Psalm 27:5, NIV

And it helps to keep our eyes on what is being achieved eternally (what is unseen, not what is seen):

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV

Most of all, we already know the end of story. Jesus has overcome the world. Though we may experience difficult times, and even walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus has overcome evil and is waiting for us in eternity. What hope and peace that knowledge brings!

Learning to trust more fully,

Allison

The Desires of Our Heart: Befriend Faithfulness

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“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:3-4 seems a little short and simple to study for a full week, but the longer I sit with these two verses, the more I’m finding new troves of treasure in each of them. Truthfully, I find myself focusing on that last part – the Lord giving me the desires of my heart – with much more excitement and passion than I feel in the instructions before those words. I spend so much time chasing a calling or a desire of my heart, that I forget the instructions he has so beautifully laid out before me: Trust in Me. Do good. Dwell in the land. Befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in Me. 

I’d love to spend this week together turning our attention to those things and seeing how the Lord transforms and grants us the desires of our hearts when we put things in their right order.

 

Befriend Faithfulness

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 

Psalm 37:3

ThursdayWhat beautiful words: “befriend faithfulness.” It creates a picture in my mind of walking hand in hand with faithfulness, of being known and being loved – a picture of me leaning upon faithfulness in the good and bad.

I’m learning that befriending faithfulness is as simple as befriending Jesus. He defines faithfulness, and it is because of Him that I know faithfulness. But what does it look like to truly befriend faithfulness?

It surely is not easy, and it’s not something that happens overnight. Befriending faithfulness is walking by faith and not by sight. It’s a sum of daily decisions that begin with trusting the Lord, trusting the journey, and praising God for His faithfulness to us.

Much like we have to spend time with people to build friendships, we must spend time being faithful in the smallest things to become more faithful.

To be a friend means to stick it out come hell or high water. One of my dearest friends is one who walked with me through four years of college—every high and low—and who has stood faithfully and joyfully beside me as I’ve been oceans away. Her faithfulness to our friendship has inspired me to grow in my faithfulness to her but to so many others. In the same way, looking to Jesus and His faithfulness to us should encourage us to grow more and more faithful.

To be a friend of faithfulness means to stand by and hold on, even when circumstances aren’t ideal. Befriending faithfulness means looking to Jesus first, even when life has robbed you of a job, a community, a home, or something you so deeply desired.

The deeper we learn the faithfulness of the Father, the deeper our faithfulness grows. It’s not easy because it requires daily commitment to the smallest things, but befriending faithfulness gives us the strength and the courage to trust, to do good, and to dwell in the lands that we have been given.

Let’s make faithfulness to God, His Word, our neighbors, families, and coworkers – let’s make that way of faithfulness our friend.

Chelsey