Responding To Adversity

Even more important than understanding why God allows adversity into our lives, is our personal response to it. The life of Paul and his contemporaries in the faith serve as positive examples of proper Christian response to the pressures of life. Paul may have been often knocked down, but he was never knocked out of the Lord’s service. Remember he said, “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather to the futherance of the gospel.” The problems associated with Christian living in our day are just as real as the pressures faced by Christians in the first century. Our response to pressure is important in advancing the cause of Christ as well.

We sometimes seem to abdicate our responsibility and adopt the role of mere spiritual survivors. When asked about how we are coping we tend to use the old cliché and say, “As well as could be expected under the circumstances.” When all along we know we should, by God’s strength and power, be victorious in all circumstances.

Our proper and Godly response to pressure can turn problems into patience, vexation into victory and tragedy into triumph. The same pressure that can cause a destructive explosion can be harnessed to drive the wheels of progress. Pressure usually produces and the production can be good or bad. Both the Old and New Testaments give many examples of the right and wrong ways God’s people have responded to pressure as they were tested in the crucible of crisis. The mere mention of names such as Job, Jonah, Joseph, Elijah, David and Peter immediately conjures up images of proper and improper responses to the pressures of Christian living.

Someone has said, “A Christian is like a tea bag, he’s not worth much until he’s been through some hot water.” Spiritual hot water is inevitable in the Christian life. Problems, real and imagined, afflict us on every hand. It is tremendously important that as we pass through the trials of life we come out on the other side as a source of blessing to those who may be looking to us for help and encouragement. Our response to adversity may make a real difference in the life of someone else.

One of my most vivid and pleasant memories from my childhood involves working the bellows for my father and uncle, who were both trained by their father as blacksmiths. I would watch as they would heat farm tools in a fiery bed of charcoal, quickly withdraw them, beat them upon an anvil and then quench them in a barrel of water. The tools were then ready for the task of tilling the roughest and rockiest of fields. It sometime takes the pressure of God’s fiery furnace and blows upon the anvil of life to produce sharp and enduring tools for His use in the planting and cultivating of His spiritual harvest.

Facing The Future Without Fear

We live in terrible times. The threat of cruel barbaric terrorism pervades the atmosphere at home and abroad. Hardly a day passes without hearing news of another unimaginable atrocity perpetrated upon innocent women and children. It seems there is no depths of depravity those who are the adversaries of freedom and truth will not plumb in order to bring terror and fear to those who advocate and advance the principles of a Judeo-Christian civilization.

They make it clear they hate us for being us. They tell us in no uncertain terms we do not deserve to live on the same planet with them. They say ultimately we must convert to their religion or die at the point of a sword. It seems they would prefer the latter fate.

We seem to be given the options of dying on our feet resisting their tyrannical brutality or living on our knees in slavish subjection to an extreme and perverted form of a religion. They make no secret of their ultimate goal. They seek to impose their barbaric, uncivilized code upon all the world.

Is there any hope? Surely God will answer the prayers of those who will stand for righteousness in the land and in the world and grant the continuing freedom we need to live and serve Him. Surely we are still privileged to pray for such a victory in our time. Surely we can use the weapons of spiritual warfare He has given us to face our fears of the forces arrayed against us and forge ahead into a future of real freedom in Christ Jesus!

In Christ we can always be optimistic about the future. We can be sure the sun will rise tomorrow and the future will come, if Jesus does not come in the meantime, and then that will be our future! Tomorrow may bring its own share of troubles and trials, but it will bring along with those the overruling providence of our great God. The words of our Saviour assure us of this, "... In the world ye shall have tribulations: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Our Saviour is saying the obvious, if we will just stop and consider it. Each day has enough burdens and blessings of its own.

God only gives us grace and strength to live one day at a time. That's all we really need. Tomorrow's problems and challenges can be dealt with by His grace if and when tomorrow comes. Prudent planning and provision for tomorrow is wise, but undue worry about tomorrow is foolish and futile and fails to face the future with faith that the God of today is also the God of tomorrow. 

The scriptures tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and that God's mercies are new each morning. When we are too fretful and fearful about tomorrow, we often rob ourselves of the peace, joy and victory God would give us today. This is not God's will and way for us. Our outlook about the future should be reflected in the words of the Psalmist, "This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)

But is our God really able to help us today? Do we have any rivers that are "uncrossable"? Do we have any mountains that are unclimable? Do we have any walls that are unbreachable? Do we have any fiery furnaces whose flames are unquenchable? Do we face any lions whose mouths are unstoppable? Do we have any problems that seem insoluble? Do we have any foes who are unconquerable? Do we have any hurts that seem unhealable? Surely the great God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob can come to our aid today, if only we trust in Him!

Hope And Help For Today

If man has ever lived in time when he needs help and healing, that time is now. We are assailed on every hand. Insoluble problems plague nations and individuals. National debts multiply at speeds approaching the speed of light. No politician or potentate presents a trustworthy proposal to place international budgets back into balance. The fabric of the very souls of nations is being torn to shreds by economic, social and political upheaval. Child molestation and sexual perversion threaten to destroy a whole generation. The traditional Christian family seems to stand on the very verge of extinction. Add to all this the very real and present danger of militant, violent and savage Islamic terror that threatens to subjugate the whole world under brutal sharia law and establish a dictatorial Islamic Caliphate.

Where is the politician or leader who can truly call men and nations that were once called Christian to repentance and back to their Christian heritage? Where is the philosophy or the philosopher that can bring help and healing? Did David speak for us when he poured out his heart to God and said, "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh that I had the wings of a dove! For then I would fly away and be at rest."

Is there any hope, help or healing for our contemporary frustration and despair? Were our antecedents in the faith merely engaging in meaningless superlatives when they spoke of the great God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Just how great is He? Was John exaggerating later when he concluded that, "...greater is He that is inure than he that is in the world." (I John 4:4) Was Paul deluded when he said, "I ,can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."? (Phil!. 4:13) Is there help today for all our troubles, trials and tribulations? It would seem so.

Surely those wonderful words He spoke to His disciples when He said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heaven laden, and I will give you rest," are meant for our day and time as well.

Someone has likened the tender, loving compassion and care of God for His children' to the ancient king sitting on his throne, surrounded by his council of wise and important men, deliberating on high affairs of state involving the destiny of nations. Suddenly he hears the sorrowful cry of his little child who has fallen down and been hurt. He rises and runs to his relief, soothes his pain and relieves his fears. Is this out of character with his high and kingly estate? Not in the least. His action does not deny His sovereignty, but demonstrates it.

Our King of Kings and Lord of Lords numbers the hairs on the head of his little children. He engraves their name in His hand. He cares, oh yes, He cares. His heart is touched with our grief! The loving compassion expressed in His rescuing us from the fearful doom and destruction of sin, confirms His greatness.

Once an ordinary boatman was rowing a college professor across a stream. When they were in midstream the professor said to the common man, "Do you know anything about philosophy?" "No," the boatman replied. "Well," the professor replied "You've lost out on a large portion of your life." Just then the boat capsized and boatman cried out to the professor, "Can you swim?" The professor gasped, "No!" The boatman yelled back, "Then you've lost your life!"

The professor had been so concerned with the academic and the theoretical, he was not practically prepared to survive in a real life crisis. It's all a matter of what is the most important in life.

Jesus said He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. If we are going to function and cope with life to the best degree, we must know the life giver and the life sustainer. He stands ready to impart to us not only the spiritual survival skills necessary, but will provide is with the wisdom and power to apply them to our everyday existence. Hope, peace and happiness head the list of the spiritual help He wishes to provide for His children as they wend their through this world. Yes, our Lord knows the way through the wilderness of this world and all we have to do is follow! - Pastor John G. White