What To Do When You Are Troubled, Part II

In this life, we are guaranteed to have trouble and trials. It’s a part of life, but God uses our trials to do mighty things in us! This week we are still talking about what to do when trials come knocking on our door. One thing is for certain, they will!!! Here’s how to handle those trouble God’s way…

Last week we discussed the WHY of a trial. Please read WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE TROUBLED, PART 1.

This week let’s discuss HOW to get through troubles…

Most of us, when faced with a trial, can become worried, upset, distracted, angry, frustrated, annoyed, snarky, baffled, moody, and a whole lot more.

Trials, even little ones, can be very uncomfortable. They can really mess up our plans and our lives!  

We learned last week that a trial is a test. It is an indicator. It shows us what our faith looks like, and in WHOM we have faith!  

We also found out that if we go through a trial, big or small, there is something to be joyful about. Seriously, there is. But it is probably not what you think.

A trial, if done God’s way, can mature us and make us more Christ-like. If we try to flounder our way through it, most likely it will break us down!  

Spiritual maturity is the blessing of a trial! And the more trials and trouble we go through, and we will, the better we will be equipt to handle them.

Then, how does God want us to go through troubling times in our lives?  This is a very important question that we should be asking. The answer is life-changing and has eternal rewards.

To find out how to go through troubles and trials we need to go back to the book of James. James 1:5 says…  

“If any of you lack in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly without reproach or faultfinding, and it will be given to him”.  

My son Christopher hated school projects. And our school loved them and assigned them liberally! Sometimes, instead of doing them in a timely manner, he would put them off until the last minute. And then, when he could not put off the dreaded task any longer, he would panic because he was in BIG trouble!  

Why was this “big trouble”? You see, we had a rule in our family, if you did not do homework you could not play sports. And Chris was all about sports!!! And we were all about being consistent!  

He would eventually come to his Daddy or me, often the night before a big project was due, asking for help. Because we loved Christopher we would help him. But we would not do his work for him. When he was young help usually looked like helping him make a plan and then sitting up late into the night until HE got the project done.  

Although, these long nights were VERY frustrating for our son it really taught him about procrastinating and grit and showed Him how much we loved him because we were willing to walk through his long night with him.

God is our Heavenly Father. Our Abba! Our Daddy! He loves us and wants to help us.  

James 1:5 starts out with the word “IF”. The Greek word for IF really means “KNOW FOR SURE”. It really does not mean IF. Odd I know. But it’s a translation mistake from Greek to English.  

So God is saying KNOW FOR SURE THAT YOU ARE GOING TO LACK THE WISDOM TO HANDLE THIS PROBLEM THE WAY I WANT YOU TO.   

Most of us can handle trouble and trials our way but that is not the way God wants us to handle them. He wants us to seek Him out and ask Him for the wisdom to handle each trial.  

And God says that if we ask Him for His wisdom in times of trouble he will give wisdom to us and give it to us liberally and ungrudgingly without finding fault with us or disapproving or discrediting us!

Now doesn’t that sound loving? It sure does to me!  Our Father is waiting with open arms! God lovingly wants to pour His wisdom out over us and give us the tools to come through a trial His way.

The two-fold question now is do we believe God can give us the wisdom to get us out of trouble and do we want to get out of trouble God’s way?  

James 1:6-7 says:  

“Only it must be in faith (believing) that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating or doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates or doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the sea. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything (he asks for) from God”.  

As Christopher got older, he go better at coming to his Daddy and me to ask for help. He learned to come to us as soon as he got a school project.  We would help him map out a plan of success one that, if he would work on his project a little bit each night, would have the project done right on time and with much less stress!  

Sometimes he would follow the plan and sometimes, well not so much!  

When he would follow our wisdom he was successful.  But, when he fell back into his old habit of putting off a project until the last minute, I called that his default setting, he would find himself in a familiar mess again!  

I remember one night about 1:00 in the morning, Christoper came up to our bedroom in a panic. Shaking me awake he moaned, “Mom, I need your help I’ll have to stay up all night to get this project done”.  

Before I could answer, his Daddy, who was awake by now, answered.  “No son, we gave you a plan. You will have to work it out for yourself. We are going back to sleep.”  

That was it! Christopher left the room without another word. He knew his Daddy meant business! Bobby turned over and went back to sleep. I, however, stayed up and in the dark of our bedroom worried about my precious son. I knew Bobby was right, but I still hurt for my son!  

God, our Father is ALL Wise! He knows the trials you are in and just what you need to get through them and become mature in the process.  He has the plan!  

God promises us that if we go to him he will lavish us with His wisdom! But we must, let me say this again, MUST believe that He will do this and believe we must follow the plan He gives us.  

Just like our son Christopher if we follow God’s plan we can get through our trials and come out better in many ways.  

But please hear this, God’s plans are not always our plans!

We might have our own ideas about how we want a trial handled. We might not want to go through a trial and do it God’s way. God’s wisdom in a trial is available for all. But if we doubt and waiver, if we fall back into our comfortable default settings, God says we will receive nothing.

He wants the best for us.

Many times our way of handling things is the easy way out, the way of least resistance, the path of destruction. Our plans in times of trouble don’t grow us! God’s wisdom does!  

We could have done the projects for our son, or run to help him when he disregarded our original plan but how would that have helped Christopher in the long run?  

Chris learned a very valuable lesson when he had to stay up all night working on his project.  The next day he went to school exhausted and with a very poorly done homework project. One day after an all-nighter he came home sick from exhaustion and could not go to football practice! And that was the worst for Christopher.

Although my heart ached for him I knew we had done the right thing. We were teaching him. Equipping him.

Teaching him to obey, to find the way of wisdom. We were teaching him that actions have consequences. All valuable lessons!  

God is our great teacher too! He wants to teach us all the way to Christian maturity. He wants to grow us and move us on the right path. The path of looking more and more like Christ.

So each trial can have a positive, although sometimes painful, effect on us.  

So here’s how to get through a trial God’s way…

• Go to God in trials and ask Him for His wisdom in handling them.  
• ASK!
• Don’t doubt that He will give you wisdom, a plan!
• Believe in God and don’t waiver! When the temptation comes and you want to second guess God or go another way cling to Him! Believe in the wisdom He gives you!
• Stay with God’s plan no matter what. Don’t let a trial’s circumstance have power over you.  

• Know that if you do waiver and do things your way God will have no part of it.  He has nothing to do with self-destruction!    
• Memorize James 1:5-7. Read it every day! Three times a day.  

James 1:1-7 needs to be a part of all of the very fiber of our souls!!!

God’s word is so wise and practical and helpful to us.  

The Bible says…

The name of the LORD is a strong tower, the righteousness run into it and are safe.