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7 Things Christians Can Learn from Misfortune

Crystal Flanagan

Every now and again in our lives we stumble across times when things do not go exactly as planned. We live in a day and age where everyone wants to have a constant resurgence of peak moments but no one is ever really ready or openly welcomes the low lying valley moments. One day you can be gainfully employed and the next day you can be laid off your job with no fair warning. Better yet, you can be as healthy as an Ox and within a moment’s notice you could be stricken with an illness that completely blindsides you. However, it never seems to fail that when one finds themselves in these awful dilemmas of misfortune that they never occur as an isolated situation but rather everything all happening at the same time. As a Christian you tithe in church, and give to the less fortunate and still can’t figure out how you’ve ended up with a string of bad luck or misfortune.   When these things happen it is normal for Christians to question these sort of events. However, the bigger question is, what can Christians learn from misfortune to hopefully embrace it for the better?

In the Old Testament we are introduced to Job, who is one of God’s most favored servants who experienced a string of horrible events leading to his misfortune (Job 1:1-22). Throughout the entire book of Job we learn of his groaning and suffering and complaints to God but it isn’t until the end of the chapter that God sets Job straight and confronts his foolish speech to reaffirm his authority (Job 38:1-41) and restored blessings to Job (Job 42:12-17).  What we can learn from Job is that God does not exclude us from misfortune but rather he enables us to endure the struggle to strengthen our relationship with him and to prove our devotion to him in these vital moments.

We all know that nothing in life ever happens by chance or coincidence under the mighty hand and wisdom of God (Ecclesiastes 3:1). However, despite the downside of experiencing misfortune there are ways for Christians to embrace the experience for the better. Here are 7 things Christians can learn from misfortune and embrace for the better.

1. Be Humble

Humility is something that we all can learn to embrace as Christians whether we’re going through a misfortunate or living the good life. 1 Peter 5:6, tells us to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand so that he will lift us up in his own timing. Humility keeps us grounded and aware of God’s sovereign control.

2. Be Faithful to God

Do not resist the chance to remain faithful to God. If there was ever a time to enact faith it would be in moments of misfortune. No matter how big or small the dilemma is we should be faithful to God. Luke 16:10 says, whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones. There is no other time to prove your faithfulness to God than, now.

3. Be Grateful for the Good Things

Job didn’t realize how blessed he was in the midst of his tribulation because he had allowed the Enemy’s attacks to overcome him physically, spiritually and emotionally. Here’s my point. Despite Job’s misfortune God was still good to him throughout the entire book by sparing his life from the beginning of his tribulation (Job 1:12). God did not allow Satan to harm him. This was the perfect opportunity for Job to show how grateful he was for God sparing his life. We can use this very scenario in our lives during our moments of misfortunate to bless God and show how grateful we are for the things that are still intact despite our losses.

4. Build Endurance

The bible tells us in James 1:4, to make sure that our endurance carriers us all the way without failing so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Simply put, God wants us to have a strong endurance to withstand the trials of this world.

5. Gain Better Perspective

Sometimes God will bring misfortune in our lives to change us for the better. It is in these moments of life’s changes when we are prompted to gain a better perspective on our lives in totality. Proverbs 20:30, explains that sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. Seeing things from the aspect of God changing us could make a world of difference in our perspective of the situation.

6. Grow Empathy

We serve a loving and caring God who wants us to be just as loving and caring as he is. In Colossians 3:12, we learn that we are the people of God, who loved and chose us as his own to be clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. When we gain these attributes we then learn to embrace them and show empathy towards one another when someone else other than ourselves experiences a misfortune.

7. Gain Wisdom

One of God’s most precious gifts to us is wisdom (Proverbs 2:6). Proverbs 4:7, tells us that getting wisdom and insight is the most important thing we can do. God can often times use misfortune as a gateway for us to ask for wisdom during our difficult time to help us gain better insight and understanding of the misfortune.

Although nothing in life is easy, we can use Job’s experience and these 7 key points to learn how to embrace misfortune for the better. As Christians we understand and know that our lives will be one that is filled with many peaks and valleys. Yet, we should strive to seek ways to embrace all aspects as we continue to grow stronger and nurture our relationship with the Lord.

Be amazingly fruitful,

Crystal

First published by Fruitful Concept. Used with permission.

Fruitful Concept is an online Christian Inspirational Blog dedicated to providing daily spiritual and uplifting content to its audience. The goal is to challenge each reader to recognize and acknowledge the fruit of the Spirit daily through individual interactions  by allowing Christ's love to manifest through us byway of the Holy Spirit. Fruitful Concept was created by author, Crystal Flanagan and her book titled, 10 Seconds from Glory, which is a novel entailing a story about the human journey of experiencing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Publication date: April 14, 2016