Seeing Disaster as God Sees It
The ability to see disaster within a framework that is good requires us to love God more than the things we lose. This means I must know him, believe him, and trust him. In the amazing conversation in the Upper Room, Jesus connected these two concepts and added a third.
He started by telling the eleven, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1). When he told them he was leaving (for the cross), Thomas wanted to know where he was going and Jesus responded, “l am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). Further, Jesus tells them that if they loved him, they would keep his commandments (John 14:15).
The connection is striking. We know, believe, love, trust, and obey Jesus. When it comes to dealing with sadness caused by loss, the non-Christian is at an incredible disadvantage because he cannot believe and love someone he does not know. When we know God, loving him allows us the choice to see our catastrophe as his tool.
We know that God loves us and that he is all-wise, so we know that whatever he allows into our lives will be for our good and his glory. While we might not be able to see and understand it at the time, we can trust like Martha did. Martha believed and trusted Jesus even if Lazarus had to stay in the grave until Christ’s second coming.
We can depend on God the same way. We know that whatever we lose, God intends to use that loss well and wisely. They became, as Paul said, lost things he could now count as gain because of the way God used them (see Phil. 3.7).
—Charles D Hodges
Good Mood Bad Mood: Help and Hope for
Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Dr. Hodges book (from which this excerpt was taken) is a marvelous tool offering an explanation to help readers see the importance of sadness and the hope that God gives us in His Word. “Do not let your heart be troubled” is coupled with “believe in Me,” and rightly so! What a blessed advantage we have over an unbeliever in that, “When we know God, loving him allows us the choice to see our catastrophe as his tool.” Instead of struggling to understand why this has happened, we can move forward with expectation of what He will do with it in our lives and beyond, trusting that
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics