Sunday’s Food for Thought : Difficult Times and the Providence of God
Yes. Our world is full of difficulties.
Losing one’s job, investment or someone who’s close to heart. The pain of delivering a baby. Stressful work environment. Strained relationships. Rebellious and difficult children.
And as long as we’re still in this world, unfortunately no one is able to escape this reality.
Another reality is, everyone responds differently to difficult times (or moments, or a particular phase in life).
There are those who, upon experiencing a disaster or a suffering or any sorts of discomfort, will start to curse and resent life (or worse, resent ‘everyone’ around)
And there are those who ‘manage’ to stand firm amidst the struggles. The journey for these people may be bitter, painful and difficult, but somehow they, sail through it all.
Here are some pointers that we may want to think about when faced with difficult times:
– Difficult times are temporary
There will be a day when we look back and see the incident as part of our life’s ‘history’. And hence, we should not react or respond to temporary incidents as if they will take place forever.
– Applying what we ‘know’ only when we ‘experience’
We know the theory of ‘handling a crying baby’ from books, but we’ll only truly know ‘what it’s like’ and ‘how’ we should calm one WHEN we hold one screaming baby in our hands.
We may ‘know’ about God’s word and His promises, but we’ll only apply what we know (how God will always be with us, etc) and see the amazing providence of God WHEN we actually experience difficulties.
– God is always with us, regardless of our situation
HE is with us and never leaves us whether we’re promoted or demoted, whether we’re up and happy, or down and sad.
Just like how God was always there with Joseph when he’s despised by his jealous brothers, when he’s in jail after he was wrongly accused of something he didn’t do, or when he’s become a successful prime minister in Egypt.
…
The foundation of faith is God’s word, and in His word there’s HOPE.
And yes, we have hope in God who’s alive and faithful to His words and promises.
Let’s put our hope and trust in an unchanging and eternal ONE.
[note]
Today’s post is inspired by Ev. Maria Mazo’s sermon earlier today. It truly is something that I need to seriously think and pray about, for I know I’m one of those ‘weak’ ones.
