What
to Do When Your World Falls Apart…by Rick Warren
“For
men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he
brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.”
(Lamentations 3:31-32 NIV)
Maybe
you got the dreaded phone call that said, “Sorry,
the test came back and it’s cancer,” or your spouse walked out on you,
or
someone you loved just died. Maybe you lost your job, or the falling
stock
market has left you on shaky financial ground. Things in your life were
going
so smoothly, and then the next minute it’s as if a storm hit your life,
and now
all your plans have been destroyed. What do you do?
The
book of Lamentations was written by the prophet
Jeremiah after he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the people
of
Israel being taken into slavery by the Babylonians. Jeremiah is
brutally honest
as he states his complaints to God. He basically tells God, “I don’t
like
anything that’s going on in my life right now. I don’t like what I see
happening in the economy. I don’t like what I see happening to our
national
security. I don’t like seeing people starving and out of work. I don’t
like
seeing the immorality, injustice and crime. And I really don’t like our
people
being taken away into slavery.”
God
shows us how to deal with our feelings when our world
crumbles. Let’s look at the six specific things God tells us to do when
our
lives fall apart. These will be helpful when the wheels come off, and
you’ll
need to know what to do when you go through those rough times.
“I
am a man who has seen affliction, by the rod of his
wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than
light; he
has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has
made my
skin grow old and broken my bones. He has surrounded me with bitterness
and
hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead. He has walled
me in
so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Even when I
call out or
cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks
of
stone; he has made my paths crooked.” (Lamentations 3:1-10 NIV)
Jeremiah
didn’t mince words. He told God exactly how he
felt, and you know what? God is okay with that. He wants you to unload
all
your frustrations on Him. Don’t unload them on your spouse, your
kids, your
boss or some online blog. Take it all to God, because he can handle
your anger,
complaints and frustrations. God is your Heavenly Father and will still
love
you, just as a parent loves his or her child even when that child
throws a fit.
You
can’t see why God allows what he allows in your life,
and God doesn’t owe you an explanation, because he’s God and you
aren’t. But
someday, and it might not be until you get to heaven, you’ll be able to
look
back and see the big plan. Until that day comes, keep taking your
concerns to
God.
“The
thought of my pain and my homelessness is bitter
poison. I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed. Yet hope
returns
when I remember this one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy
still
continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all
I have,
so in him I put my hope.” (Lamentations 3:19-26 TEV)
When
your world is falling apart, it’s so easy to focus
on the pain, the problems, the pressure and the difficulties. It’s the
natural
response. But the biblical response is to turn your focus to God’s
love. Even
though you’re mad at God, you need to remind yourself how much he loves
you.
Focus on his unconditional love. Remember that you can’t make God stop
loving
you. You can complain, yell at him and scream at him, but he will still
love
you forever.
You
can see this biblical approach in Jeremiah’s life in
Lamentations 3:19-26. Jeremiah starts out focused on his pain: “The
thought of
my pain and my homelessness is bitter poison. I think of it constantly,
and my
spirit is depressed.” Jeremiah was consumed by the devastation around
him; it
consumed his thoughts and made him bitter and depressed.
If
you want to change your life, you have to change
your thoughts. So that’s what Jeremiah does. We see the mental
switch in
the next verse: “Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The
Lord’s
unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure
as the
sunrise. The Lord is all I have, so in him I put my hope.”
You
don’t know God is all you need until God is all
you’ve got. But that’s all you need, because God will take care of you. We make dumb mistakes when we start doubting
God’s love. We need to change our thinking. We need to remember, “The
Lord is
merciful and will not reject us forever. He may bring us sorrow, but
his love
for us is sure and strong. He takes no pleasure in causing us grief and
pain”
(Lamentations 3:31-33 TEV).
God
loves you.
He
is God — the eternal, all-knowing, infallible God who created you to
love you
and will never leave you. So when you
feel like you’ve lost everything, stop focusing on what’s lost and
start
focusing on what’s left: God and his love for you.
“When
life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself.
Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions. Wait for hope to
appear.” (Lamentations 3:28-29 MSG)
The
concept of waiting on God is a spiritual
habit. It is the single greatest antidote to anxiety and tension. It’s
a
spiritual discipline that you must learn to do or you will be under
stress your
entire life.
This
is what it means to wait on God: you sit down and
shut up. Jesus encouraged us to "go into your room, close the door and
pray to your Father, who is unseen" (Matthew 6:6).
He repeatedly spent time alone with his
Father (cf. Mark 1:35; 6:46). Find a
place to be quiet and sit still in silence. Don’t
read anything. Don’t pray. Just take
some deep breaths, sit before God and say, “God, I’m just going to wait
on
you.” It’s amazing what a calming ability this has on your heart and
mind.
“Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. … They will run and
not
grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 NLT).
God
wants to talk to you. If you aren’t hearing him, it’s
because you aren’t making time in your schedule to listen to him.
You’re too
busy listening to your iPod, playing with your iPad, watching
television,
playing video games or talking on your cell phone. You might be
overworking.
Invite
his Spirit to speak to your spirit. Open
your mind to his voice. Listen as thoughts
come to you from God's
word and world. Ask the Holy Spirit to
help you discern his words and impulses. Yield
yourself to his presence and direction. Tell
God you’re waiting to hear from him and
then listen. Be quiet.
Focus
your thoughts on Him:
"Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right
hand
of God. Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:1-2). Envision
God on his throne (Isaiah 6:1-8; Revelation
4). Spend a moment praising him for his
greatness
and thanking him for his goodness to you. That’s
the power of a quiet time. But wait in
patience, because God’s timing is perfect.
“Let
us examine our ways and test them, and let us return
to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40 NIV)
There
are a lot of things in life that can’t be changed.
For example, you can’t change your past or the genes you inherited.
With things
like that, peace of mind will only come when you accept them.
But
you do change the things you can change when your
world falls apart. The only thing you can change is you. You can change
your
attitude and skills. You can change your character and values. And you
can
change the way you use your time and what’s important to you.
Jeremiah
says, “Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:40 NIV). Do a relational
inventory, a spiritual inventory, and a moral inventory.
When
you start doing these evaluations, you’ll realize
you’ve stored up a lot of emotions, like guilt, anger, frustration,
grief and
remorse. You’ll need to deal with these emotions in order to have
personal
recovery in your life. Don’t ignore them and don’t give up on making a
change
in your life. God is for you, and he will help you with your deepest
hurts and
regrets. Give them to God and listen for what he tells you to do.
“My
enemies threw me in to a pit and dropped stones on
me. The water flowed above my head, and I cried out, ‘This is the end!’
But I
called on your name, Lord, from deep within the well, and you heard me!
You
listened to my pleading; you heard my weeping! Yes, you came at my
despairing
cry and told me, ‘Do not fear!’” (Lamentations 3:53-57 NLT)
The
most damaging emotion is fear. Fear is the emotion
that keeps you stuck in the past. Fear paralyzes you. Fear is the
number one
problem most people face — fear that they’re not going to make it, fear
of the
future, or fear of what other people think.
If
you are battling fear in your life today, God says the
same thing to you that he said to Jeremiah: “Do not fear!” God
is in
control and will get you through whatever you’re facing. He will get
you out of
the pit in his perfect timing. So ask God to relieve your fears.
If
you are afraid
that your life has fallen apart and your best days are behind you,
you’re
wrong. God can always turn things around. He sent his son, Jesus
Christ, to
“seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10 NIV). No matter what
you’re going
through, no matter how bad your circumstances appear, pray this prayer
of
Jeremiah: “Restore me, O Lord, and bring me back to you again! Give me
back the
joy I once had!” (Lamentations 5:21 NLT).
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