By Pastor Andrew Farland
Would you say there’s more positivity or negativity in our world today?
It’s easy to understand that when you’re going through a hard time, negativity can surface much more quickly than positivity. In fact, when negativity rears its ugly head, we lose sight of God’s goodness and God’s promises altogether. But remember even when darkness falls, we aren’t helpless. One of the most powerful weapons we have to fend off negative thinking is speaking truth into our situation; leaving no negativity unchallenged! Today, we’re calling out and DEALING with negativity.
Negativity must be challenged or it’ll drive you crazy! But don’t worry, This is NOT the best that God has planned for you- He wants peace to ALWAYS be behind the wheel of your life, just like it says in Colossians 3:15:
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”
Today, I’m going to share 5 crucial reminders from the book of Job that you need to continually have on repeat when you’re going through times of trial, temptation, and setbacks.
The first one comes from Job 10:12. It says, “God will never stop loving me.” I’ve seen this in my own life. A couple of years ago out of nowhere, I started to think of all the amazing things God had done in my life since I was a child. It was a deep revelation where I just knew that I knew that I knew that God loved me, and God would never stop loving me. I remember telling myself, “I can never again question that God loves me!” and I settled it once and for all. And the same is true for you. Settle it in your heart today that God will never ever stop loving you!
The second one is from Job 23:14. It says, “God has a plan for my life.” Jeremiah 29:11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future.'”
I know it might not feel like it, but your feelings lie to you all the time! Your future IS painted with beautiful brushstrokes of HOPE. God has a breathtaking plan for your life, give it time and watch His plans unfold!
The third one is from Job 23:10 and Job 31:4. It says, “God cares about every detail of my life.” Like we talked about in a previous message, God wants you to be honest with him. It might come as a surprise but He ACTUALLY wants to know how you’re feeling. Heck, He even wants to know what’s bothering you! What’s stressing you out? Tell Him about it!
In His wisdom, He knows that the more you’re able to come to Him and surrender those things to Him, the more you’ll be able to throw your weight on Him and finally receive the rest you’ve been waiting for!
God doesn’t just care about your “spiritual” report card. He cares about your day-to-day life. The grind. The struggle. The pain. And yes, what kind of cereal you have for breakfast! God cares about EVERY detail of your life.
The fourth point is from Job 34:13: “God is in control of things that I don’t understand.” There’s a bible verse that I ABSOLUTELY love in Proverbs 20:24. It says, “Since the Lord is directing our steps, why to try to understand everything that happens along the way?” You need to triple highlight this one and put it on your mirror! This is such a foundational truth to build your life on. Complete trust. Did you know that when you start to try to analyze the situation, you are only using the capacity of your limited human understanding? When you do this…when I do this…We’re not going into God’s throne room like Asaph did in Psalm 73, where his eyes were opened to the wisdom of God!
Here’s the bottom line, It’s only when we come to God that we begin to understand what’s going on in our lives, and we start to tap into His wisdom and His peace. Friend, God is in control even when you don’t understand. But understanding will only come if you’ll go to Him.
There will be times when you don’t understand. Surprising right? That’s completely normal! Did you think you were the only special person that had a question for God?
Job had times when he didn’t understand why things were happening to him, too. Why terrorists killed his whole family. Why he lose all of his livestock. Why he became deathly ill. He didn’t even do anything wrong. Oh, but what joy is ours. We get to see behind the curtain of Job’s life and see the utter faithfulness of God. The same God restored his fortune and gave him double for his trouble.
DO you know what the definition of a problem is? It’s when you don’t know the “why?” of what’s happening. But remember God knows and He has the solution. In God’s presence, all questions are laid bare and lose their power!
The fifth one is Job chapter 5:11: “God will protect me.” There are many times in the bible where people were in life or death situations, like Moses when he came to the Red Sea. All he could see were enemies behind him and the water that was going to drown him, and everybody else in front of him. In fact, people in the ancient near east thought that water was evil because they didn’t know what was lurking beneath the depths of the ocean. It’s like they believed that there were sea monsters around every corner and that every storm was from God created to destroy them. It wasn’t until Jesus calmed the storms that their mindsets were changed.
Can you imagine being Moses, leading millions of whiny people through a desert for 40 years and all of a sudden you come face to face with an ocean you can’t swim across? They had two options, confront the murky water and drown, or have the most powerful army in the world overtake them! Picking between these two choices is like picking to either keep your neck or your teeth haha. There’s no way to win.
God will protect you today just like He did Moses thousands of years ago when He PARTED that murky Red Sea! Listen to what I’m about to tell you. I don’t care how scary your trial is, nothing is bigger than our God. He will protect you. He’ll deliver you. And in your moment of trouble, if you call out to him, he will answer you!
Keep repeating these 5 reminders from God like a new favorite song:
“God will never stop loving me.
God has a plan for my life.
God cares about every detail of my life.
God is in control of the things that I don’t understand.
God will protect me.”
Your fears might tell you that all of these things are lies, but if you’ll have faith today and continue to trust Him, you can lean on these promises with all your weight, and you’ll see God come through for you again, just as He has time and time again! Build your life on the promises of God and you’ll overcome negativity.
Proverbs 20:24
“Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way?”
Be encouraged today because God is with you.
