Hitting the Reset Button – following the early morning phone call.

So the early morning phone call¹ came, your world has been rocked, perhaps irrevocably changed.  Now, what? A beloved son passed away … the news about cancer was not good at all … a young man I love has had to come to terms with mental illness and addiction.  It isn’t supposed to go like this; no, a 20-year-old young man should die suddenly or unexpectedly. 

If you don’t have a strong faith in God, you might default to various coping mechanisms, trying to make yourself feel better by getting drunk or high; or going on one long, punishing run after another, trying to quiet your mind or still the sound of your breaking heart; crawling into bed, pulling the covers over your head, going to sleep, hoping to shut everything and everyone out, and hoping against hope, that the world will be different when you wake up!  You might try to get through your pain and fear by clinging to loved ones, afraid to be alone . . . but is there another way?  I believe so.

As Christians, as God’s beloved children, we need to maintain a basic framework from which we will not be shaken, a strong core which may need to be reset when heartache or suffering comes, but which will not be destroyed.  

May I suggest your personal default mode be set something like this?

‘focusing on, remembering these things--

Because I am a child of God, I will choose to remember:

¨God loves me, and he is faithful.  His heart toward me is always GOOD.

Scripture says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.  Great is your faithfulness…The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”²

read it again.

¨Whatever tragedy or trauma has occurred in your life has not caught God off guard.

How do I know that?  Because God never slumbers nor sleeps!³ 

To whom or what will you turn for direction and for comfort?  The choice is, of course, yours . . . you alone can choose your response.

¨Every time heartbreak enters your life, you have an opportunity to turn to God for him to work

Therefore you will choose to remember that God’s heart toward you is good, that he loves you, and that you should maintain an attitude of praise toward him—as Job said,  “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”⁴

‘But I cannot do it,’ the wife screams in her fear of the future… ‘neither can I,’ the brother of the young man sobs ...

Yes, you can!!  Run to Jesus, throw yourself upon his breast.  Cry out to him; he is there for you and with you.  Turn to God for help, and then stand on the truth that, as Paul said from prison,

“I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength"!⁵

And, then what? 

¨Turn to God for direction and wisdom

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; don’t just trust your own thinking.⁶

Ask God for wisdom, and he will give it to you.  Period.  Then, believe he has and is giving you the wisdom you require for next steps in your situation.

Is that all?  Of course not, but these compile a great framework for Christians to access.  One more thing—

¨Take one day at a time.

“Do not worry about tomorrow for it has cares enough of its own.”⁷

God will give you strength for today; his grace is sufficient.

 ‘Want to radically change your viewpoint?  Memorize these Scriptures, so you have them—then no one or no thing can take them from you.

Hit the reset button – do not forget who you are and whose you are … you are loved by God beyond what you can never comprehend or apprehend, but try you must! 

Christine