When things go wrong

 

When Circumstances Overwhelm Us.

 

Hello and welcome to Time for Reflections

There will be times in life when events and circumstances will overwhelm us. We will feel the need and necessity to respond, to get involved, to put things right.

As a good and important discipline, our first instinct should always be to hand over the situation to God. Even if we spend the shortest moment in doing so. We should give the situation, with its uncertainties, difficulties and fears to God.

This handing over to God ensures Divine intervention in every situation; however bad it is. This simple act of faith is repaid many times by God, because we are acknowledging His omnipotence, His power and His love for us.

Our first reaction should always be handing the situation to God, and then wait and watch calmly and patiently His oversight and His activity. We may well be tempted to act, and to take control once again; but we should wait on God’s command. God will show us what we should say and what we should do and when and how to do it.

By praising God in such difficult times, however bad they are, we are in effect demonstrating our total faith in Him and accepting that His will be done always; because His will is for our good.

Thank you for listening. God bless.  

Thank you very much for listening to Time for Reflections. This is Vic Moubarak saying bye bye for now and God bless.

When things go wrong

 

.

I'd like to talk about something which must have crossed our minds many times as Christians, but we tend to sweep it and hide it under the carpet or shake it from our minds. There are times in life when bad things happen suddenly and they turn our lives upside down; and as Christians we accept these things as the will of God. We accept that God has allowed them to happen for his own purpose; but perhaps deep inside us, if we're honest, we don't approve. We don't agree with what has happened.

Now … is that a sin?

Is that the ultimate sin? Are we standing in defiance of God when we think that way? When a tragedy happens and someone suddenly dies, or someone is taken ill to such an extent that it changes all his life and the life of those around him.

We accept these things as the will of God but we say it's not fair; it's not right; it's not just. It's wrong that that poor baby had to die so young and the hurt it has caused his family and would continue to cause his family.

So, when that happens; what does God think?

Is this our human nature trying to understand what is super human?

What is not of this world? What is of God's world?

As Christians we try hard in these circumstances to hold on to our faith. We know that what happened is God's will, but our human minds can't understand why it happened; and God knows that.

God does not ask us to understand Him. He asks us to trust Him and to love Him … and as hard as it is, that's what we should try to do when tragedy happens.

Perhaps we should remember the words of Jesus on the Cross.

He said “Lord forgive them they don't know what they're doing”. So when our thoughts tempt us to say it's not right; it's not fair; it's not just that this has happened; let us think back and know for certain that God forgives us for these thoughts.

Thank you for listening. God bless you.

When things go wrong

 

.

4 minutes recording

 

When things go wrong.

When things go wrong.

Don't panic ... don't panic !!!

Crises will happen to us from time to time. God permits them for His own purpose and for His own reasons.

Our natural reaction may be to panic.

Our un-natural reaction is to remain calm. Take a deep breath and trust in God.

At times of crisis we need to proceed slowly, in the conscious knowledge that God is with us and will protect us.

I repeat: in the conscious knowledge.

We should speak our truth quietly, as the opportunity arises, and as the Holy Spirit guides us.

We should avoid needless talk, or needless worries and concerns. But nurture a peace in our hearts that comes from Him, who cares and will protect us. If we allow Him to.

Our prayers should be focused on His will, and His plans for us in this critical situation; in the sure belief that He will see us through it just as He has brought us to it.

Giving up.

It happens to all of us I suppose at one time or another.

We try to achieve something, but the more we try the more we fail. We try again and again and we fail one more time. We’re so tired of trying to achieve our goal that we feel like giving up.

It is said that on His way to Calvary Jesus fell to the ground three times. It is not Biblical of course, but we can assume that He must have stumbled or fallen at least once.

He was exhausted. He had been beaten, mocked, spat upon and tortured. His disciples had run away in fear, one of whom even denied Him three times, He must have been totally exhausted carrying His Cross up that hill.

That's enough to make anybody give up.

Jesus could have stayed there on the ground and died on the spot. But He got up. Three times, He got up and continued His journey to a cruel and very painful death.

He did it for us. He did it because His Father asked Him to.

Let that be our inspiration to try once again when we feel like giving up.

A distant God?

This is a story about a little girl about 18 months old. She was born a perfect normal child, but just before her first birthday she contracted a virus infection. This has left her brain damaged, sight and hearing impaired and she cannot eat normally. She has a tube fitted to help her eat.

Her Christian parents have not lost Faith in God. They say they have accepted what has happened and are now moving on. They love her dearly and will do all they can for her. They are an example to us all.

Of course, these parents are not alone in maintaining and even growing in Faith when faced with difficulties. There are many people who have endured terrible illnesses or great problems in life and yet they continue to believe that God is by their side. They do not turn their back on Him, or blame Him for what has happened to them.

When things go wrong in our lives it is natural for us to feel sorry for ourselves. To feel frightened of the future; angry even that this has happened to us.

God knows how we feel and how frightened we are. He forgives our human failings and our panics when we are hurting and concerned for our uncertain future.

He may appear distant to us as our emotions are in turmoil. But as we calm down and learn to trust Him we will, once again, feel His comforting love for us.

God in control.

When things go wrong, no matter how wrong, it is important to remember that God is still in control.

For reasons best known to Himself, He has allowed something wrong in our lives.

Instead of rebelling and blaming Him for what’s gone wrong; let us instead thank Him that He is in control of the situation.

Let us trust Him that He will help us through it.

Ill Health.

I suppose it is easy being a Christian when all is well. Life is wonderful, good job, happy family and great health.

But what happens when health starts to fail. I had the misfortune to visit a hospital the other day and saw many people in various states of bad health. I’ll leave the vivid descriptions to your imagination ….

I then recalled the many people I see in church on Sunday who are obviously very unwell. People in wheelchairs, blind people, the old and infirm … there’s even a man who has to carry with him a small machine to help him breathe (I think)!

How can these people who are obviously in failing health still turn up to church and pray? What inner strength do they possess to keep and maintain their Faith in God?

I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer. But let me at least pray to God to give them the courage to continue to be an example to others, and also to make their lives more comfortable.

Please join me in praying for all who are sick right now.

When you're down.

Ever felt disheartened, sad and really low down? Most of us have.

We look around us and see things going wrong, and perhaps we can’t cope any more. What’s worse, we see good things happen to bad people. People who don’t even believe in God. At least that’s how it looks from where we’re standing.

This is what Jesus had to say to His disciples: “The Father Himself loves you. He loves you because you love me and have believed that I came from God. I did come from the Father, and I came into the world; and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father … I have told you this so that you will have peace by being united to me. The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!” John 16:27-33.

God's Protection.

I saw an interesting nature programme on TV the other day. A wolf cub had been injured in the wild and abandoned by its mother. He was all alone, frightened, hungry and defenseless. Left there he would soon perish.

The TV crew and resident vet tried to capture him and send him to an animal hospital where he could be treated and looked after until he is strong enough to be released in the wild once again. Every time they approached the wolf cub he bared its teeth and attempted to bite his benefactors. Eventually, he was caught and taken to the hospital where, within weeks, he was well again.

When things go wrong in our lives we too tend to behave like that wolf. We are angry, we’re concerned, frightened even - about the future and about what's happening to us.

And we go on the attack. We believe that God has abandoned us, just like that she-wolf abandoned her cub. We blame Him for what's gone wrong, and we rebel against Him.

When we behave like that, we shut off a channel of communication with God.

When God is temporarily put aside, He doesn’t stop loving us; but we block His influence to do good in our lives.

Like the wolf cub, every time God tries to help us we bare our teeth in anger. Our behaviour is futile and un-productive.

The wolf did not realize that by being caught he’d soon improve his hopeless situation. But we should know better, and trust our Lord rather than lash out at Him without thinking.

“I will be with you always, to the end of time.” Matthew 28:20.

When things go wrong.

God allows bad things to happen. He does not make them happen.

More often than not, when bad things happen, they are the results of our actions or in-actions, (and our knee-jerk reaction is to blame God).

God allows these things to happen to serve His own purpose in His own time and in His own way. We really do not know why He allows them to happen; but we must trust Him.

When bad things happen, it is important to remember that God is still in control. He knows what has happened, how it affects people close to the event, and even people far away and totally detached from it. He never loses control of the situation.

Our reaction to these events is therefore vital. Our human nature will take over and all our emotions will come to the fore – shock, fear, denial, anger and so on.

However, when we have calmed down a little, we should turn to God and praise and thank Him.

“What did you just say? Praise Him?”

We are praising and thanking Him for still being in control of the situation - not because He allowed the bad thing to happen.

Our praise acknowledges His supreme power over the whole universe. We are in effect saying that we accept that He allowed the bad things to happen, yet we still trust Him, and trust that His will be done.

When we acknowledge, in such terrible situations, that His will is still paramount; we open a channel, in certain circumstances, for Him to turn the situation to the good.

I have seen this happen several times.