For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
That
was Sabrina’s favorite verse. It is also
reality for the people who trust Jesus.
Without the love of God, without the hope He alone gives, without the
strength of God, we are in trouble.
I was
having lunch with a ministry partner last Wednesday when the phone rang. In the next hour I learned about the death of
two people close to our church. Our
worship leader’s sister and her husband had been killed. We have very few answers about this situation
although the pieces are coming together a little at a time. Their funeral was Tuesday and was one of the
hardest things I have had to do. This toughest
part is that many people in our church family are touched by their death, and
my heart goes out to all of them.
Friday
morning my phone rang again. It was a
friend that told me that another friend had passed away. This was another crisis on the heals of an
already hard time. Sabrina was 35 years
old, the mother of three awesome kids and a wonderful and loved wife and
special lady. There are few answers to the
cause of her death at this time other than some of the health issues she
had. Her funeral was yesterday, and this
was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been a part of.
Both
of these situations qualify as hard.
Some people close to me were placed in situations that cut them and caused
deep pain. When the people around me
hurt, I hurt with them. No, I’ve not
experienced much of what they have, but these are people that I love and care
about.
Oh how
good it would be to have answers for why things like this happen. What I do know is that we need the strength
of God to get us through and to push us forward. God doesn’t intend for us to go through the
hard things of life alone.
Two
weeks ago our church leaders were told that we will soon need to make major
decisions about our church as to where we are located. This is going to cost a lot of money and
could change the course we are on. What
I have learned is that God has a plan, and through all of this we need His
strength.
If we
lean on anything else or trust in any other strength, we will trust the wrong
thing. Our strength comes to an
end. We might try to lean on people who
have resources or those who seem to have wisdom, but without God, we are
sunk. I often have to re-evaluate where
I am and where we are as well as where we are going to make sure that God is in
the center. It is easy to get off
center. The hard things of life can move
us from focusing on Christ or help us focus more on Him. The hard things make us ask the questions and
make us refocus what we are doing and the direction we are headed in.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
“O Sovereign LORD! You made the heavens
and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!
What
do you do when hard things or tough times come your way? Far too many people, including Christians,
begin to crumble, question and even sink when difficult situations hit. Yet will our lives and our faith be different
if we have a proper view of God? Nothing
is too hard for God. We can always lean
on Him.
My
prayer is that the hard things I go through will lead me to lean on, trust in
and run to Jesus. I thank God when I can
see that He is in control because hard things are too much for me to handle on
my own. By the way, God is always in
control. When hard things come into our
lives, it is time to acknowledge that God has it all.
NOTE ON OUR back2school
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