What is the Truth About When Things Go Bad?

 

“If you obey Jesus you will have a life of joy and delight.” Well, it is not true. Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go to the other side of the lake,” and they were plunged into the biggest storm they had ever known. You say, “If I had not obeyed Jesus I should not have got into this complication.” Exactly. The temptation is to say, “God could never have told me to go there, if He had done so this would not have happened.” We discover
then whether we are going to trust God’s integrity or listen to our own expressed skepticism. (HSGM)

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (Psalm 51:17)-that of a spirit God has made glad by a great forgiveness. The sign of this kind of broken heart is that the saint is untroubled by storms, and undismayed by bereavement because he is confident in God. (NJ)

Reflection Questions
When things go badly, do I see it as an indication that I have been mistaken about God’s leading or about God’s love? Am I prepared to accept that perhaps neither is true? What better explanation is there?

Taken from Hope: A Holy Promise
© 2009 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association Limited.
All rights reserved.

Where is Your Hope in Troubled Times?

Hope – A Holy Promise
by Oswald Chambers

 We all need hope, particularly in these difficult times, and Christians have a hope that the world knows nothing of. For believers, the word hope expresses not uncertainty, but certainty, a glorious expectation of the future based on God’s holy promise.

This book of quotes by Oswald Chambers will build up your hope and focus it where it belongs: not on changing circumstances, but on the unchanging Word of God.

Best known for his classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, Chambers has much to say about the precious gift of hope—and about the one in whom we hope, Jesus Christ.

Brand new to the series of Oswald Chambers gift books, Hope: A Holy Promise includes reflection questions to help you connect Chambers’ biblical wisdom to your own life.

Oswald Chambers (1874 -1917) is best known for the classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. Born in Scotland, Chambers had a teaching and preaching ministry that took him as far as the United States and Japan. He died at age forty-three while serving as chaplain to British Commonwealth troops in Egypt during World War 1. More information can be found in his biography: Oswald Chambers—Abandoned to God by David McCasland 

An excerpt of Hope will be posted later in the week. Be watching.