Three Don’ts When Everything Is Going Wrong

When someone asks us how things are going, we smile and say, “GREAT!”

How we are different from one another is often revealed not during our GOOD TIMES, but during the HARD TIMES!

One thing we all seem to do during HARD TIMES is turn to our friends for some sound advice. Often what we get is not good, sound advice, but a lot of RHYMES and CLICHÉS such as:

- “Grin and bear it.” I find no comfort in this, do you?

- “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I find no comfort in this, do you?

- “When you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot on the end and hang on.” I absolutely find no comfort from the thought of hanging over a cliff by a rope with a knot in it.

The reason the world gives this kind of advice to us is because this is the only kind of advice the world knows to give.

Listen, what we need during HARD TIMES are not CLICHÉS or RHYMES. What we need are SOLUTIONS to our problems. The best advice we can get when HARD TIMES come is from the Word of God. For example, the life of Joseph, in the Old Testament, is a perfect picture of what we should and should not do when HARD TIMES descend on us. Some of the HARD TIMES that Joseph encountered were...

- Being thrown into a pit to die and later being sold into slavery by his biological brothers because they despised him and were jealous of him.

- If that was not enough, later he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into Pharaoh’s prison for ten long years.

Look at Genesis 39:20. We read, “And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.”

We can rest assured that the whole time Joseph was in prison Satan was whispering in his ear, “God does not love you. Look at ALL the bad things He has allowed to come your way.” However, Joseph was able to be victorious in spite of all of these horrible setbacks.

HOW DID HE DO IT?

Let us consider THREE things we can see in his life. Such as...

I. HE DID NOT DEMAND UNDERSTANDING.

It is not wrong to try to understand what we are going through, but we are not to DEMAND TO UNDERSTAND. Why? Because there are some things we cannot understand until we get to heaven. This is why the Christian life is called a “Walk of Faith.” If we knew WHY EVERYTHING was happening to us, we would not have to walk by faith.

For example, there is no justification or reasonable explanation for what Joseph’s brothers did to him or for what Potiphar’s wife did to him.

Joseph simply had to trust God for the situations he found himself in that did not make any sense to him, or seemed completely unexplainable! These are two horrible things that happened to Joseph.

Illus: If Joseph had been like some of today’s Christians, he would have DEMANDED THAT GOD EXPLAIN why he was being treated the way he was, or else he would have told the Lord he did not intend to serve Him another day.

WHY DO SOME CHRISTIANS DEMAND UNDERSTANDING DURING HARD TIMES? BECAUSE THEY DO NOT LIKE TO BE FORCED INTO A POSITION OF HAVING TO TRUST THE LORD.

Illus: For example, one of the reasons that people work so hard to have an abundant supply of money in the bank is because they want to be able to buy things when they want them. They do not like having to trust the Lord for those things.

WE LIKE DEPENDING ON OURSELVES INSTEAD OF DEPENDING ON GOD. However, when HARD TIMES come, and we are not capable of taking care of ourselves, we are FORCED TO TRUST GOD. Now we can see WHY GOD SENDS HARD TIMES. It is during the HARD TIMES that we DRAW CLOSE TO GOD. One of the reasons America is so far from God today is because these are GOOD TIMES.

Illus: Many politicians today would like to take credit for the greatness of this nation. The fact is, this nation is great, not because of them, but in spite of them.

God has richly blessed this nation and now we are so blessed we no longer feel the need to call upon Him for anything. We are so blessed, and have long been, the envy of every nation in the world. This would be well and good if we would express our gratitude and exalt God for blessing us, but it seems it is going to take HARD TIMES to cause us to recognize His blessings and draw close to Him.