I have experienced many challenges in my life, from losing my job to losing my home to getting robbed. At first, I struggled with what was happening with me, but I learned that faith in the Almighty God will carry you through. When it is all over, your blessings will come, and they will be more than you could ever imagine.
An Experience with Faith
Losing everything...
The latter part of 2007 to the middle of 2008 marked a pivotal point in my life. I lost my entire life savings in investment during the financial recession. Shortly after, I got a call from my workplace to inform me that I received my last paycheque. It was a humbling time. I went to bed most nights praying and in tears for seven months with no income. Eventually, I could not afford my rent payment and moved into my friend’s house with my family.
...to gain something more!
Less than two years later, I moved out of my friend’s home into a house I owned, fully paid for, for the first time. What I learned from that time is more valuable than what I lost. So, when I was robbed a few years after, I quickly got over the loss and emotional trauma by counting my blessings. When things don’t work out the way I want, I trust that God has a better plan in store for me. God is my everything, regardless of my struggles and sins.
I have been through challenging times before and after this time, but this time became a common point of reference when I go through struggles of any kind. I remember God answering my prayers, not as I wished or wanted, but in His own time and way, which was beyond my imagination.
Blessings Through Setbacks
I remember the day I went out running in the cold and developed a pain in my foot. I felt disappointed that I could not complete my daily run because of the pain that forced me to stop. On taking off my gloves to open my door, I realised that three of my fingers were frozen. Had it not been for the pain in my foot, I would have run further and ended up losing my fingers. It took many months of rehabilitation to restore some normality in those fingers.
Life is more than the physical and things that we have no control over. What seems negative can be the very miracle we crave in disguise. We can miss the blessings if we feed on the negative things. Just remember that God is big and, if we lose something, He can give it back to us a million times. Therefore, no need to waste our time, energy, emotion, and health over things that look like a mountain to us. The monster in the physical reality is trivial in the spiritual world and already defeated by the Almighty God.
The Lone Survivor
Shipwrecked on a Deserted Island
Imagine being the only survivor of a shipwreck, trapped on an island, with little-to-no hope of being found. The temperatures on the island go from one extreme to the other, hot during the day and freezing at night. Also, the island is home to many wild animals that could eat you alive! You salvage what you can and build yourself a hut inland to keep you safe at night, and you maintain a fire inside to stay warm. That night, you pray and ask God to keep you alive and send someone to rescue you from death.
Sometimes, it gets worse...
Several days pass, and you run out of food with no sign of help. You make a trap, hoping to catch an animal for food. However, several days pass and no catch. By some stroke of luck, you hear an animal in distress in the middle of the night one night. You rush with a flaming piece of firewood and find a large deer caught in your trap. Unfortunately, you struggle to get it under control and make the kill, seriously injuring one of your hands in the process. Exhaustion rolls over you in waves, and you just want to sleep. After a few hours, the deer gets away.
Catching your breath, you struggle back to the hut, hand dripping blood everywhere, only to find it on fire. The fire you used to keep you warm is burning out of control, consuming your only shelter. Overwhelmed, you start thinking the worst as you asked God why. You feel like giving up and allowing yourself to be eaten to end the pain. However, you manage to stay in a tree and rest.
...before it gets better.
Morning is breaking when you hear the crinkle of dead leaves under footsteps and lumbering voices. You shout for help and, a few minutes later, a search party stumbles through the trees. They found you! As you walk to their boat, you ask them how they knew that you were there. They tell that they saw a huge flame in the night and decided to wait until the morning to investigate. Then, you realise that God allowed your hut to burn to the ground so people could find and rescue you. Your struggles were, in fact, blessings in disguise.
Journey with Faith.
No doubt about it, we will face situations that look like obstacles or setbacks. However, we must remain positive in perseverance. Remember that nature takes time. We should rejoice in whatever progress we have made, no matter how small. Sometimes the very things that we may think are setbacks are what we need to move forward. Faith is beyond the physical, and what we interpret from the things we see can make or break us. If we want to move forward, we should remain positive and allow faith to guide us.
To continue reading, I suggest going to the timely changes post.
