Do you ever wonder, “Where is God” when going through challenging times? Does He seem distant, or even non-existent? What is the biggest crisis you are experiencing right now?
★ We are currently living in extraordinary times, causing much anxiety even for the strongest temperament. There are many reasons individuals experience fear, anxiety, and even depression, and our world seems to be growing more and more fearful every day. If we ever lived in an uncertain time with an unclear future and reason to fear it is now.
★ Fear is a natural response for humans and has its place to help keep us safe. However, living in fear is counter-productive and is not an option if we are going to get through any difficult circumstances. We cannot allow ourselves to get stuck there and dwell on these negative issues.
★ Believe it or not, there is a way to experience peace in the midst of all of this and that is what I will be unpacking in this book. We have many choices in life. Every day we’re making more choices than we realize. Peace is another choice that we can make over fear and anxiety. It takes recognizing where our mind is going and living with the intention to make a U-turn and choosing peace.
★ In this book, the author takes a hard look at fear, anxiety, and depression, defining them, discussing the symptoms and causes of each, and how to overcome them. One cannot read this book without being changed from the inside out if the shared truths are taken seriously, acted upon, and allowed to permeate and become a reality in the reader’s heart and mind.
This book identifies and defines emotions that are running rampant during the current uncertain times in which we live, offering hope and restoration through a personal relationship with Christ our Creator who certainly knows our needs and has what it takes to help us experience peace and calm amidst life’s treacherous storms. The author shares many scriptural references with personal examples of God’s faithfulness in the past and His promises for the future. If taken to heart, this encouraging book offers hope to the hopeless.
Chapter 8 – “What I Learned About Fear” in which the author shares some personal experiences, and
Chapter 10 “Are You Fearful of Your Future” where the author explains many unknown details about the 23rd Psalm.
Remember the hope of your calling. As a Christ-follower, you are chosen, accepted by God. No matter what anyone says, you are adopted into the family of God. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. God calls us sons and daughters. He wants us to see ourselves as dearly loved, chosen, valuable, and secure children of God.
Consider the magnitude of that calling. We are not called to a religion or duty but to a relationship—with the living God where we are seen as holy and blameless in His sight—not because of anything we did, but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. You may feel like your body is riddled with battle scars but think of the scars that Jesus bore for us. When we get to see Him at the end of our life, we will see the scars in His hands, feet, and side. We will see the wounds left by the crown of thorns on his head and the ripped-up skin on His back from the flogging He received before His crucifixion.
There is nothing more senseless and unjust as the crucifixion of the Son of God. It was an evil act, committed by cruel and cowardly people. But what did God do with that? He used it to accomplish the salvation of the world. The event itself was terrible, but the outcome was more than good. It was incredible, beyond measure. God made right what was overwhelmingly, indefensibly, outrageous and wrong. The result? The world’s redemption.
If something bad has happened to you, know that bad is bad and wrong is wrong, no matter what the outcome happens to be. God can cause so much good to come from a tragedy. Good coming from the tragedy does not make the tragedy itself good and right. It never has been and it never will. The outcome and an event is not quite the same thing. A good outcome does not excuse or justify a bad event. But redemption operates differently because God can and often does use the worst events possible to work out His redemptive plan, as we can obviously and most clearly see in the story of Jesus.
God can bring good out of your pain like Jesus’s scars resulted in our salvation if we have accepted His indescribable gift of the exchanged life. The lessons learned and the character formed through your suffering can be used for His glory.
We need not look at adversity as “good” in and of itself, but that God can work “good” out of it. Paul tells us in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This is not saying that all things that happen to us are good, but that He can and does use adversity in our life for good purposes. There are reasons, sometimes unseen at least at the time when He will use a bad situation for His good intentions. This is a promise for believers.
We have already stated what miraculous things can happen on the other side of adversity. It is up to us how we process the difficulties that affect our lives and if we are willing to grow from lessons offered through those experiences. Have you been open to receiving the hidden gift within those struggles? No matter how strong we may think we are, there is no way we can overcome tragedies and rise victorious over them without God’s help.
So, as we look at all of this, adversity while extremely difficult to navigate and is real, in and of itself, is not the root of our problem, It’s ultimately our stubborn will, lack of faith, and rebellion against God. God can use adversity to enlarge our capacity to trust Him and reflect His image. What matters to Him is that we are responsive to Him right where we are. Adversity is an inescapable reality since we live in a “fallen” world. As we experience such, we must look to God for perspective, strength, and comfort, which under the best of circumstances is bound to afflict us in some form or another.
Not to minimize, dismiss, or ignore the severity of pain we feel in the face of adversity, we must remember that God is God, writing His redemptive story and we already know that He wins in the end, and all will be well. We need to remember that our emotions don’t define reality, God does, and His reality is redemptive. We need not look at adversity as “good” in and of itself, but that God can work “good” out of it. He doesn’t expect us to submit to the adversity itself, but to Him in our adversity.
You are called to a purpose. There is no one like you. You have a unique DNA, skills, talents, and gifts that God has purposed for you to use for His glory. He has a purpose only you can fulfill because there is no one else like you. We are to do good works that He has prepared and planned for us even before we were born.
I don’t know what you have found your identity in before now, but you can have your identity in Christ. If you are a Christ-follower, He is your identity. When your identity is in the One who created you, it changes your whole perspective on life. Your identity is in Christ, not these struggles that tend to pull you down and away from your first love. As we think about our legacy, we should consider: are our circumstances going to leave an imprint on us, or are we going to leave an imprint of faith and obedience on our circumstances?