Romans 15:13 NIV
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Many of us – maybe even you – struggle with things that we feel are out of our control. These can be very significant life events such as terminal sickness diagnoses, bad choice consequence, and many others that test your faith to the max. These struggles are overwhelming and sometimes lead us to question God to why this is happening. Most of the time the grief felt starts with denial that this can happen to you because you have been a good person and anger when the reality that this is happening sets in. Not just angry with someone, but everyone.
When you realize that your anger is not working, the next stage is usually hoping that you can do something to make this go away. A trade. I will go to Church every Sunday or I will give up drinking, in exchange for making this challenge disappear.
Then you slip into depression. Depression is the pit that sucks the life strength out of us all. Depression is Satan’s playground and causes you to give up all hope in the world and complete lack of trust and peace with everything.
At these times, the last thing you want to focus on is acceptance of the outcome, but I tell you, that once you have acceptance, you can begin to fight. Once a soldier in battle accepts the fact that he is going to die in battle, he becomes an affective soldier. Understanding the worst case will allow you to move past the pit of depression stage and to the acceptance stage.
This is where your faith kicks in the strongest. When you question God about your struggle, don’t say, “this is not right, don’t do this” but instead say, “God, your will be done, and I am turning things over to you as your faithful servant” because as soon as you do that, you have placed your trust and faith in God, the almighty Father, who truly cares what happens to you. He sent his Son to die for you. No one has greater love then to lay down their life for another. Hope in God that he will use you in your struggle to help others.
Lean forward into the challenge vs back on your heals. Be strong as your Heavenly Father is strong. If your faith is strong, you will be strong. If God is for you, who can be against you. Faith and Trust is Power, the Power of God Himself with you. Through Him, all things are possible. Don’t give in, give it over to God and trust His plan.
Hope, Joy, Peace, Trust, Power be to you.
David, 316 Ministry
