Photo by Ayo Ogunseinde on Unsplash
In my years as a pastor, I’ve sat with couples who have buried a child, adults burying their parents, I’ve wept with people who just found out they had cancer and a short time to live, listened to the brokenhearted stories about the end of a marriage, a child who wants nothing to do with the family or God, the loss of jobs, financial difficulties, addictions that can’t be beaten.
Every single time, it is heartbreaking to walk through.
These moments feel like a gut punch.
I’ve walked through the loss of friends, difficulty in family and work relationships, loss of jobs, setbacks in life, and difficulties in starting our church. I’ve looked at mountains that seemed impossible to get past, hurt that felt so painful I thought I could never recover, a betrayal that ran deep.
And you have too.
Walking into the church, we wonder what to do with those feelings, situations, and moments. Where is God in them? Does God care? Does He know? Are we supposed to put on a smile and pretend life is great when we just drug ourselves to church looking for a shred of hope?
This leads us to Romans 8 and one of the most quoted verses in the Bible. One that has been used for encouragement over and over in the lives of thousands since Paul wrote it.
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
Right now, you might be amid a storm in life. You might not be. If you aren’t, the reality is your storm is coming at some point.
Here are a few questions to help you see where you are, where God is in the storm you are walking through, and how to have the faith to walk through what you are in and what is ahead:
1. What storm are you facing? It is important to identify the storm you are facing. Often we don’t know what it is. We feel down, or something feels off from what used to be or what we hoped. Often it isn’t a storm we’re in the middle of; we’re simply tired or burned out. Other times we are in the dark place of the storm, and the waves are crashing around us. Also, without identifying our storm, we will struggle to see anything God is doing because we’ll simply go into survival mode or become jaded.
2. Are there any sins that need to be confronted? By this, have you sinned to get you into the place you are in, or has someone else? Take finances for an example. This can cause an incredibly stressful storm, but many of our financial issues (the housing market, retirement, etc.) are out of our control. Other financial storms are in our control (debt, spending, saving, giving, etc.). Or relational storms: did you hurt someone? Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? Is there someone you need to confront or forgive, and let go?
3. Look back at a storm, hurt, or pain from your past. With some distance from that situation, can you see God’s hand? I know that the further I am from a situation, the more clarity I have. I will often see my pride and sin more clearly, but I also see God’s hand more clearly. Now, on this side of heaven, we will not have answers for everything that happens to us. We aren’t promised that. We are promised that God will never leave or forsake us, that all things serve a purpose in God’s plan, and that all things will bring about God’s glory and good if we are called by Him and love him.
4. What does looking at your past help you to see about God with what you are facing? What is He trying to do right now? I like to look back on my life because it often helps me move forward. This is why God had the nation of Israel do things to remember how He moved in the past. This is why as followers of Jesus, we do things like communion and baptism to remember how God worked in the past, because that has an enormous impact on our faith in the future.
