How To Get Through Hard Times
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Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
There are three critical components that are needed to get through hard times:
Prayer
Rejoicing/Thanksgiving/Praise
Mental Focus
Thought: Some of the saints at Philippi were in danger of stunting their spiritual growth in the LORD due to contention, disagreements, and external worries.
The problems in Philippi:
Paul wanted them to continue to grow in knowledge and understanding and live blameless lives (Phil 1:9-10)
They church was dealing with several layers of anxiety. Paul was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, there were some within the church that were preaching out of jealousy and rivalry, they did not have sincere intentions (1st chapter)
They were being intimidated by their enemies.
There were some in the church who were selfish, others who were full of pride, others who only looked out for their own interests.
Then, there were some in the church who was dissatisfied, they were complainers and they started arguments.
People were discouraged, between being persecuted from those without, dogs that had arisen within the church who were false teachers, and those who were enemies of the cross whose mouths may have confessed Christ but their lifestyle and actions opposed God.....whom Paul states “are headed for destruction”.
Finally, there was contention between two of the saints by the name of Euodia and Syntyche, in which Paul asks them to settle their disagreement between each other.
All of these problems, many problems that were going on within this church. We too, we face a myriad of problems. For us there is not just one problem, but we are faced with problems on multiple fronts.
Our problems:
We have to contend with our carnal minds/flesh and strive against sin on a daily basis.
We strive to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God
We deal with the growing rise of false doctrine, false teachers, and false prophets.
We have to deal with our own personal problems.
We deal with sickness in our bodies.
We sometimes deal with contention with family members, contention with co-workers, contention with church members, contention with neighbors, contention with haters.
We experience death of family members, death of friends.
Currently we are dealing with this pandemic, various variants of COVID, with no end in sight.
On top of that we are dealing with inflation, it’s hard to put food on your table, prices are increasing, sometimes it’s hard to just put gas in your car.
But despite of these things that we contend with and against, the scriptures tell us how to navigate through hard times!
Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” Paul tells the saints at Philppi, that despite all of the difficulties you face, despite of the hard times you’re dealing with, he tells them to “rejoice in the Lord always.” to understand what rejoicing in the Lord means, we must consider the words of Habbakuk 3:18
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk received some frightful and troublesome news regarding the people of Israel. Yet Habakkuk declared “I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk knew that God was his salvation, when God is your salvation it means that God will deliver you. When you declare that God is your salvation, you are declaring that God will deliver you out of your hard times! I need for you to strap up your faith and declare to about 3 people that God is my salvation! I expect God to deliver, I expect God to fix it, I expect God to turn it around! When you declare God to be your salvation, when you truly believe God to be your salvation, despite of the hard times, it will put a praise on your lips! It will put joy down in your spirit.....I may be going through......but I can’t stay in this forever.....God is my salvation!
Habakkuk then says:
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
When you feel weak, when you get tired, you need to declare that God is my strength.....come on here somebody......you are tired of dealing with it, you are tired of the sickness, you are tired of the contention, you don’t think you can make.....I need you to open your mouth and say “The Lord God is my strength!” It seemed as if Habakkuk was in the valley of despair, but then he says “he (God) will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
There was another prophet that declared:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
How do you get through the hard times? You gotta rejoice in the Lord, you gotta wait on the LORD and have faith in Him. Even in the difficult times, the recipients of this epistle probably did a double take when Paul said to rejoice in your hard times, but just so they understood what he was saying.....Paul says “and again I say Rejoice!” Paul says don’t look crazy, don’t look surprised, yes I said even in your hard times you’ve gotta rejoice!
Paul then says in verse 6:
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Don’t worry about anything. He says the opposite of what we tend to do about this or that. We worry about this, we worry about that, and then the next thing you know we are consumed with the cares of this life, we are weighed down by troubles on every side, and then the next thing you know, you are ready to give up, you start doubting God, you’re ready to backslide, on the brink of losing your mind! Paul says don’t worry about anything, instead, you ought to pray about everything! You feel overwhelmed PRAY, you feel hurt....PRAY.....you feel misunderstood.....PRAY......things not going right....PRAY......received bad news.....PRAY!!! Men ought always to pray and not to faint! Don’t worry about another variant.......PRAY!!!! Don’t worry about the economy......PRAY! If you are lacking......tell God what you need!
This is how we make it through the hard times, this is how we traverse through times of uncertainty and dark days. You need the LORD to do something......tell Him about it! However you feel.....TELL THE LORD ABOUT IT!!!!
Then after you tell him about....you need to thank Him for what He’s done. Think about the other times you went through the hard times and he brought you through it. Thank Him....for what you have.....thank Him for what you’ve already experienced......and then thank Him for what He’s getting ready to do!
Do you know what happens when you follows these instructions? Paul says:
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
You’ll experience peace that will go beyond your human understanding! I should be to pieces.....but God! I should be cry, I should be depressed, I should be upset.....but God is keeping my mind......and I can’t understand it.....it’s not me doing it....but it is God that’s keeping me!
Now finally, after you’ve followed those instructions, you need to have mental focus. Instead of focusing on the negative, instead of focusing on the bad stuff Paul says:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
If you focus entirely on the bad stuff it will bring you down. It’s not to say that you pretend its not there, it’s not to say that from time to time you won’t go there.....but when your mind goes to the negative, when you mind focuses on the hard time.....snap out of it by thinking on things that true.....God is true.......His word is true.....and if God said I’m coming out.....then I believe that I am coming out of it! Focus on things that are honest, just, pure, lovely, things of a good report, things that are virtuous, things that will bring or produce praise!
Then after that, you have to keep putting this into practice! If we follow these instructions, God will bring us through the hard times.