How do we Handle Difficult and Bitter Changes?
Changes come in every life! Some changes are good and some changes shatter us, but there is only one “all-powerful” force that can work every change for our good!!!! Most change is beyond our control. Joys and sorrows, good and bad, happen to all alike. The question is how to face all of our challenges and deep worries and hurts. Blows to our well being fall alike upon every life. There is only one divine power and only one immovable and changeless rock, and He alone gives a promise of abundance of life in all circumstances–if we love God and keep His commandments. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). In the Old Testament we read: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
Such a guarantee of abundance and happiness can only come from a power beyond ourselves, which is powerful enough to affect our thinking. feeling, and decision making. God’s power alone will put our choices and decisions in the light of His hope, care, and love for us. God never chooses for us! We always are responsible for our own choices, so, we must choose to serve God in all things.
Only God has the power to change every evil circumstance or happening in our life into blessings! Sometimes His blessings are spiritual, and He lifts our understanding of His love and care for us to a higher degree of knowledge and understanding which blesses us. This work of God becomes immensely important to our spiritual growth. Other times, He changes the evil we face into material good or increased knowledge of the ways of God. The point is that God will always work everything together for our good when we meet His conditions to love Him and live according to His purposes for our lives.
Think for a moment how important God’s promise is to our lives when He says: “You know that everything works together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes!” (Romans 8:28). If we know God promises to work everything in our lives for our good, it greatly increases our faith, hope, and trust in Him. As we apply our faith, it brings an increase of even greater hope, trust, and faith in Him into our lives. It gives us evidence that He knows all things and His desire is to bless us and cause us to know Him and grow spiritually. God alone can make the end of our difficult circumstances a blessing!
When we meet God’s conditions, we learn we can trust Him to bless our every circumstance and He will make the necessary changes that will, in the end, bring about blessings! Though we may have to wait for a time while God picks up all the pieces of our problems and rearranges them into blessings, when God is finished we will call His work good and perfect
There are circumstances in our lives caused by “reaping what we have sown” that we cannot change, and we are forced to deal with those things on our own. We can only move or change the things that can be moved by our actions or changed by our words. If we are doing evil and we know it, we know that we are going to reap it and nothing will change that. However, if we are given totally to God in all things in our life, we can look at the horrible circumstances and give them to God knowing He hears and will work it all together for our good.
There are some things such as death, where sometimes we cannot see the good. In those times when the good does not appear, we gain great strength by trusting in God. We come out spiritually stronger in those cases than when we entered the trial. God knows the future, the present, and all of the unknowns. If we will trust Him, knowing that “God is perfect, His ways are just and always loving,” we can fully trust Him to do what is right and good for us. “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands?’ Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’” (Isaiah 45:9-10).As God’s children, we can always trust Him to give us His highest and best. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
God sees the things we cannot see, and God sometimes allows an unexpected death for reasons beyond our knowledge. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). When we trust God, we are resting fully in His foreknowledge and His goodness to bring forth a work in us that will glorify God. “The LORD is righteous, He is in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails” (Zephaniah 3:5).
Through Christ we receive an anchor for our souls. “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). We should not be tossed about or drowned in our problems and sorrows. Yes, we will grieve, but it is easier when we know our God is standing beside us, and He will take our lemons and give us lemonade in the end of our trial. In Christ there is always a bountiful supply of hope and comfort.
Our hope in God is sure! There are no impossibilities with God. If there are those who are not anchored in Christ Jesus, come today to the fount of living waters. The love of God will sustain you through all of life’s vicissitudes. In Christ you are covered with a love that will never leave or forsake you. His one purpose in coming was to bring us into relationship as children of God. If He cares that much about each of our lives, He certainly cares about the things that happen to us. We have an enemy (Satan) whose entire goal is to destroy us. When we accept Christ as Savior, we are born of the Spirit of God, given a seal upon us by the Holy Spirit that cannot be breached, and have a pre-ordained future with God for all eternity. God reveals Himself to the soul that desires to know Him. We do not choose God, but he draws us to Christ, and He chooses us. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:16-17).
Your desire to know Him is from God!!!! Make your calling and election sure by coming to Christ today. Abundant living begins and ends in Christ and God the Father. Remember, God says His sheep will know His voice and they will not follow another. If you choose abundant life today, Christ will fill you with the Holy Spirit to teach you the things of God and bring all things to your remembrance. The Spirit of God will convict you of sin, of righteousness, and judgment to come. New birth in Christ brings us under the covering and protection of God’s great love and His blessings. It will be a brand new life, empowered and directed by God. Your doubts of the reality of God will disappear as you walk with Him. You will know Him in whom you have believed, and you will be persuaded that He will keep all things that you have committed unto Him, just as the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:12.
Let us pray: Dearest Jesus,I come today to surrender totally my life and my all to You. Wash my sins away and put a new heart and spirit within me. Father, I will serve You and live my life through the spirit of Christ that now dwells within me. Open to me Your fullness and an understanding of Your word and Your ways. Take my life and use it for Your glory. I surrender all. My faith and trust are in You alone and I will follow You. Amen
Anita
