As I prepare my teaching for this Sunday, I received a phone call from my mother about my oldest cousin's 14 year old son who was hit by a car going 35 mph. Still a day later he is recovering in the hospital with some bleeding in the brain. They are concerned, not sure, is everything working right? They have him mildly sedated so that he may recover quicker. Everyone is worried, hoping, and experiencing a little stress.
Now back to studying about how we are Strengthened through Stress. Wow! What am I going to say. This is one of the real stressful circumstances we face - often calling it a tragedy. The Bible talks about the testing of the heart. These things sure test my heart.
If I believe this event is an opportunity for growth, does that mean God causes these things to happen? No, that cannot be right. I know Romans 8:28 says, "God works all things for the good..." It doesn't say, "God causes all things" but that He works all things. Some things just happen. Why? Because we live in a broken world. At creation, God made a perfect world - a world experiencing perfect balance. We know, because of what I taught last Sunday, that we experience stress when our balanced life is thrown into imbalance. We may say, "I was thrown a curve ball (like your 14 yr. old kid being hit by a car).
God's perfect design was put into chaos when we decided to not trust Him or play by His rules. We decided to eat from a tree that he said would hurt us. We didn't believe. We wanted the story to be more about us; and the rest is history. We allowed sin to enter our environment by not trusting. This caused an imbalance in the systems of the world. Now things don't work perfectly. The Bible talks about the world groaning too deep for words. So on most days, you and I experience the imbalance of our world which causes stress.
The way to grow from stress caused by circumstance meant to test you or sharpen you is to respond in the opposite of what we did in the Garden of Eden. Commit (Entrust) yourself to God and continue to do what is right. God promises to work everything out for those who trust Him.
~Eric
An after-thought: it is hard for me to trust Jesus when I don't like the potential outcome.
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2 comments:
Wow! Pastor Eric, that was great. I just got done listening to the sermon, I missed. I loved it. Thank you. God Bless you. Nina
Nina, You must listen to Pastor Ben's message this past Sunday - awesome. He offered some great life application. Pastor Eric
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