Face it. Bad things happen. We can do everything in our power to prevent it, but sometimes, well, –it happens. Bad things come our way. You are not immune. Those around you are not immune. Tragedy can strike you, your family, your friends, it can even strike someone you love.
It does no good to worry. Worry will not prevent it; in fact worry only compounds the problem.
If armed with the right attitude, we can face even the bad things with confidence knowing that no weapon formed against us will prosper.
Here are 10 Good Things About Bad Things:
- Bad things can help focus my attention on the Lord where I learn to draw strength from Him, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can help me learn to share my burdens with the Lord and to learn of his love and care for me in the hardest of times, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can show me God is my fortress, my rock, my Hightower in the midst of the storm, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can reveal the God who is beyond all my own ability and wisdom, the one who is wiser, stronger, unshaken, and immovable, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can be opportunities for God to restore what sin and selfishness have destroyed, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can be opportunities for God to break through my isolation and entrenched ways leading me to new breakthroughs in life and relationships, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can force me to face my misplaced priorities and pursuits, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can produce patience in me, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things can show me some burdens are too big to bear alone, that I need God and others to live and thrive, and that is a good thing.
- Bad things help remind me this world is not my home, I am looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, and that is a good thing.
Dear friend, you may be in the middle of a bad thing right now. I cannot tell you how long your night will last, I can only tell you as a fellow sojourner I have been there too and have found Him who clothes himself in darkness to be faithful and true. If you are too tired to hold on any longer remember he still holds you, and his strength knows no limit. Peace, be still.
Special thanks to Ron Mehl for helping me discover this truth.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
